Scott Thorpe knew Nevada County sheriff's officers were looking for him well before he surrendered at his Smartville home. A phone operator accidentally left the tip on Thorpe's answering machine, said Sheriff's Lt. Tom Carrington.

"They ended up calling his house saying the sheriff's office needs permission to release your address," Carrington said. "He comes home and hears the message and says, 'They're on to me.'"

It was one of many communications issues discussed by law enforcement officials during a Wednesday debriefing on the Jan. 10 shootings that left three dead and three injured.

Thorpe was on a list of several suspects soon after the back-to-back slayings at the Behavior Health Department and Lyon's Restaurant.

Detectives had his Smartville phone number but no address, so they called Pac Bell and told an operator that they had a multiple homicide and needed help, Carrington said. The department has found people in the same way countless other times.

Carrington declined to identify the Pac Bell security officer who investigated the mishap.

"He's a very unhappy man right now. It will be fixed at their end," he said.

In hindsight, Carrington said, the mistake may have spurred Thorpe's eventual surrender.

"Even though it was not what we intended to happen, it worked out for the best. That's when he decided he better call his brother and tell what he had done," Carrington said.

The 40-year-old allegedly confessed to his older brother, Sacramento Police Sgt. Kent Thorpe, who later teamed with Carrington to coax the alleged gunman into surrendering.

Carrington typically handles such negotiations, and even though Kent Thorpe has 12 years of experience in hostage negotiations, "We did a lot of soul-searching before we allowed this to occur."

Here's how the talks unfolded, according to Carrington:

Kent Thorpe was at his home with his supervisor, Lt. Gary Gregson, and on a phone with Scott Thorpe.

At Highway 20 and Mooney Flat Road, Carrington was on one phone with Gregson and another phone with a SWAT commander near Scott Thorpe's house on Mooney Flat Road.

Starting at about 7:30 p.m., Carrington received the negotiations play-by-play from Gregson and conveyed that to the SWAT commander. This went on until Scott Thorpe was arrested without further incident at 9 p.m. - about fours hours after the brothers first talked.

The negotiations were "seamless," Carrington said.

"(Scott Thorpe) never got irritated with his brother. He was very calm. He trusts his brother implicitly, and that was very helpful," Carrington said. "He just plain wanted to give up."

Overall, sheriff's officials were pleased with the crisis response.

Two officers - Sheriff's Sgt. Gary Driscoll and Nevada City policeman Dan Badour - were at Behavioral Health within 90 seconds of the first 911 call, and several agencies were on the scene soon after, Carrington said.

Some glitches arose because some firefighters couldn't get on the Sheriff's Department's radio frequency, and cell phones became useless near Behavior Health because of the heavy calling traffic.

Firefighters stayed informed with scanners or by calling their own dispatchers. Possible solutions might include distributing radios that have the Sheriff's Department's frequency.

"We're going to be exploring what options we have and taking steps to make things better," Sheriff Keith Royal said.

Thorpe is accused of killing Laura Wilcox and Pearlie Mae Feldman and injuring Judith Edzards at the Behavior Health office in Nevada City, where Daisy Switzer suffered multiple fractures after jumping from a window to escape the gunfire.

At Lyon's near Grass Valley, Thorpe allegedly killed Mike Markle, an assistant manager, and injured cook Richard Senuty.

Edzards was in critical condition Wednesday at Sutter Roseville Medical Center, where Switzer was in good condition. Senuty is recuperating at Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital.

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