CLEARLAKE (CBS SF) — A suspect who allegedly was yelling racial slurs in a Clearlake apartment complex parking lot Saturday night was taken into custody after attacking an African-American man with a machete, according to authorities.

Clearlake police said officers were called to the Beach Front Apartments on Lakeshore Drive after the report of a male victim who had been stabbed with a machete. When officers arrived, they found the male African-American victim at the scene. He told police that a white male adult had been yelling racial slurs at a number of people in the apartment parking lot.

That suspect, later identified as 34-year-old Clearlake Resident Anthony Hammond, returned to his apartment before emerging armed with a large machete. Hammond attacked the victim, striking him in the shoulder with the machete as he continued yelling racial slurs. The victim, who sustained serious bodily injuries in the attack, was transported by paramedics to Adventist Health Hospital in Clearlake.

Police said the victim was not being identified due to the severity of the crime.

The suspect retreated to his apartment after the attack, according to authorities. Police set up a perimeter and evacuated the neighboring apartments. Looking through the apartment window, officers observed a male subject asleep on a couch inside and Hammond trying to conceal himself inside his refrigerator before fleeing to a rear bedroom. The sleeping man was woken up and removed from the apartment, but evidence that suggested Hammond might be armed with a pistol led to a standoff.

Police were in the process of obtaining a search warrant several hours into the standoff when Hammond was convinced to surrender to officers and was taken into custody. No firearm was found in the apartment, but the machete used in the alleged attack was located.

During transport to the Lake County Jail, the suspect threatened to kill the transporting officer and his family upon his release from jail. Hammond was booked into the Lake County Jail on charges of aggravated mayhem, battery with serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon, felony resisting executive officer, hate crime and battery on a person, Hammond additionally had two outside agency felony arrest warrants against him.

Anyone with information related to this investigation is requested to contact Officer Myers at 707-994-8251 Ext. 502.