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A seven-hour police standoff in Hawthorne ended abruptly today, when authorities burst into the apartment where they thought their suspect was barricaded — only to discover that he wasn't there.
Neighbors near Kornblum Avenue and 132nd Street told Fox LA that they saw officers with their guns pulled attempting to serve a search warrant around 4 a.m. this morning.
Authorities were searching for a suspect accused of shooting a man in the leg a two weekends ago near Dockweiler Beach. The LAPD's Pacific Division thought they saw a movement in the building, so they called in the Swat Team just after 6 a.m. this morning.
In the meantime, authorities had cordoned off the neighborhood, and neighbors were evacuated. Some news reports were saying that the suspect was refusing to come out, and this incident was labeled a "potential barricade situation."
And then it wasn't.
The SWAT officers finally entered the apartment around 11:30 a.m. but then, well, the suspect wasn't there, according to Los Angeles police Officer Norma Eisenman.
LAPD didn't really said much after that, so it's hard to tell what happened. No other information about the suspect or the alleged assault with a deadly weapon were released.
