A California man who was previously convicted of stalking Oscar winner Sandra Bullock was found dead inside his La Crescenta home on Wednesday afternoon.
Scroll down for further details on this scary and unfortunate situation…
According to a local ABC affiliate, the Los Angeles Police Department served a warrant at the home of Joshua Corbett yesterday morning.
The 42-year old then reportedly barricaded himself in his residence, resulting in SWAT officers arriving at the scene in response to the incident.
Corbett said he had a weapon and threatened to kill the police officers.
At this point, crisis negotiators were brought in and spent five hours trying to convince Corbett to leave his house before they entered the house and found the suspect dead.
He was found lying on the floor from a self-inflicted gunshot.
(As a related point: the police did not confirm the nature of the warrant, but ABC reports that Corbett had failed to show up for a hearing related to his probation on April 23.)
Why are we writing about this sad, but seemingly random death on a celebrity gossip website?
This is why:
In 2014, Corbett was went on trial and was sentenced for stalking Bullock after he broke into her home.
Officials said at the time that he had two dozen illegal firearms and ammunition in his residence.
This wasn’t just an instance of a crazed fans harmlessly making his way on to a celebrity’s property, either. It was seriously frightening stuff.
In the 2014 hearing, Bullock could be heard in a terrifying 911 call telling the dispatcher the following:
“I’m in my closet. I have a safe door."
"I’m locked in the closet right now.”
Corbett was holding a black notebook with a two-page letter to Bullock and magazine photos of the actress when he was arrested.
He was later issued a 10-year protective order that required him to stay away at least 200 yards away from Bullock.
He was also sentenced to five years probation and treatment at a mental health facility.
In June of 2017, he was released from this mental health facility after receiving approval to do so from a doctor.
At that time, he was placed in an outpatient program and will continue to be monitored.
Here is a photo of Joshua Corbett in court:
So this marks the end of a tragic situation all around.
Bullock is yet to make any sort of public statement about what transpired yesterday.
We can’t really see why she would do so.