SAN JOSE — A Willow Glen man was arrested Monday on suspicion of having an array of illegal guns, bomb-making materials and fentanyl, following a 911 call in which he claimed to have shot at an armed intruder that police say was a figment of his imagination.
San Jose police officers were called at 1:18 p.m. Monday to the 2200 block of Cottle Avenue after the man reported that a gunman was trying to break into his home, and that he shot at the intruder, according to the police department.
The responding officers summoned the resident out of the home, and he told them that the gunman “was still inside,” police said. But after officers searched the home and did not find anyone, they decided his gunman claim was false, and that the man “may have been hallucinating.”
While officers were inside the home, they saw multiple firearms, including homemade guns and guns with serial numbers that were altered or removed, police said. They called in the police department’s Gun and Hazardous Offender Suppression Team — which is tasked with investigating privately made, untraceable firearms known as “ghost” guns — and obtained a search warrant for the home.
Police said the warrant search led to the seizure of nearly two-dozen assembled and partially assembled firearms, including stolen weapons and submachine guns, along with “bomb making precursor materials” and narcotics suspected to be fentanyl. Jacob Lafaver, 28, was arrested on suspicion of several weapons crimes and was booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail in lieu of $290,000 bail, jail records show.
Anyone with information about the gun seizure or similar activity can contact Detective Jordan Epperson at 408-277-4161 or by email at 4554@sanjoseca.gov. Tips can also be left with Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers at 408-947-7867 or at siliconvalleycrimestoppers.org.