The Sun Sunnyvale's Newspaper Knife-wielding man captured by SWAT Six-hour standoff ends in SWAT ambush By JUSTIN BERTON A deranged man wielding a knife in an apartment on the 200 block of W. California Avenue was captured unharmed in the early hours of Oct. 27, after a SWAT team ambushed the residence. Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety received a call from the brother of Kenneth Bruce Rock at 9 p.m., claiming Rock threatened to kill him with the knife. According to a police report, by the time officers arrived on the scene, the 37-year-old Rock had barricaded the front door with furniture. Rock began breaking the windows to the residence, shouting that he would kill any officer that approached him. SWAT team leaders evacuated residents from neighboring units and cut electricity to Rock's apartment. Officers then used flood lights to illuminate Rock, who continued to stand near the shattered windows while continuing to threaten officers. Just before 3 a.m., SWAT team members went unseen as they crawled beneath a window Rock was standing near. In a simultaneous action, SWAT team members popped up to spray Rock with OC pepper spray at the window, as other team members used a battering ram to gain entrance through the front door. Though Rock was dazed from the spray, he was not disarmed. An officer who gained entrance to the residence shot one round of a plastic bullet that struck Rock in the arm, forcing him to drop the knife. Rock was arrested and transported to Santa Clara County Jail. [ Back to Contents Page | Sunnyvale Sun Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, November 4, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.