A mixed-martial artist nicknamed “Mayhem” was arrested at his home Thursday after apparently live-tweeted an hourslong standoff with the Sheriff’s Department that ended after a SWAT team, a bomb squad and crisis negotiators came to his Mission Viejo home on Thursday.
Deputies were serving an arrest warrant for alleged stalking and domestic violence in the 26000 block of Avenida Calidad (map) about 10 a.m. when a man barricaded himself inside the home, Lt. Jeff Hallock with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said.
Hallock identified the man in the home as Jason Miller, and said the individual had routinely been in contact with the Sheriff’s Department in past incidents.
“He retreated into the house, was uncooperative with any of the commands by sheriff’s deputies, and based on that, we established a perimeter, called out the SWAT team and now we’re in the process of establishing communication with him inside the house,” Hallock said shortly after 1 p.m.
Jason “Mayhem” Miller, an MMA fighter, wrote the following from his verified Twitter account at 11:20 a.m.: “If you would like to see this drama unfold, please, come to 26262 Avenida Calidad, Mission Viejo, CA 92691.”
Public records show Miller owns the home at that address, which is in a development of single-family homes.
“We haven’t seen any real negative downfall from that particular tweet,” Hallock said, “but we know that is another mechanism for communicating with this individual.”
At least one resident who lives nearby said he read the tweets and they prompted him to go to the scene to find out what was happening.
Authorities tried to contact Miller via cellphone and were prepared to “communicate with him via social media if need be,” the lieutenant said.
Just before 2:15 p.m., the Sheriff’s Department blew his front door open, and Miller walked to the rear of the home and surrendered, Hallock said. Miller was taken into custody on the arrest warrant, as well as obstructing and delaying a peace officer resulting from the incident, authorities said.
Miller was being held on $200,000 bail and was expected to appear in court on Oct. 14.
Aerial video showed multiple patrol cars, a black SWAT armored vehicle, an ambulance and other police-type vehicles were on scene. A crisis negotiations team and bomb squad responded as well, Hallock said.
About 1:45 p.m., Miller tweeted that authorities had broken a window in his home, thrown a box in with a phone inside, and were scaring his dog. Video from the scene showed the front door blown open.
“I would like to give up, but not with 50 RAMBOS out there. Not cool,” Miller stated.
In other tweets, Miller referred to “wanna be soldiers” and “waste of resources” outside his house. He said he wanted a “peaceful solution.”
“Just don’t let them shoot me,” Miller wrote.
“ALL THIS because I wanted to help raise a young boy into a man, and his mama (went) off her meds, and an ambitious DA thinks mayhem is BAD,” Miller tweeted.
On his Facebook page, Miller wrote Sunday the Ol’ Dirty Bastard from Wu-Tang Clan had taken over his Twitter account. The rapper died in 2004.
The page stated that Miller had worked since June at Rampage Fitness Academy in Lake Forest. An individual who answered the phone at the facility said no one there had seen Miller in the month.
From 2009 to 2012, Miller was the host of MTV’s “Bully Beatdown,” a show in which bullies fought in the ring against MMA-trained fighters for prizes, according to his page on the Internet Movie Database.
He also appeared in filmmaker Morgan Spurlock’s documentary series “A Day in the Life,” according to IMdB.
In 2013, he appeared on the NBC competition reality series “American Ninja Warrior.”
Miller was charged in 2012 in connection with the a vandalism incident in which he allegedly broke into a church and caused an estimated $400 worth of damage, according to the Los Angeles Times, which also reported he was discovered sleeping naked on a couch. The charge was dropped later that year, the Associated Press reported.
On Thursday, the pastor of the Mission Viejo church that was vandalized came to the standoff scene, saying Miller had become a friend.
“He was apologetic from Day One and was very sincere,” said Pastor Brian Anderson of Mission Hills Church. “He took care of absolutely every cost of the damage. … We’ve been good buds ever since.”
About a year later, he was also arrested on suspicion of domestic violence outside his Mission Viejo home in August 2013, according to the Orange County Register.
Miller has competed in a number of MMA competitions, including the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Strikeforce and DREAM, according to his profile on the MMA website Sherdog.
Miller’s former agent, Ryan Parsons, said the two parted ways two years ago, when he said Miller retired from MMA fighting.
Miller is 33, according to his profile on UFC.com, where he wrote that he began training in his backyard when he was 16.
“It’s what I was born to do. I don’t have the skill set to do any other job — I can only give my body for the entertainment of the masses,” Miller stated on the profile page.
KTLA’s Anthony Kurzweil and Jennifer Thang contributed to this article.
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