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An hours-long standoff is over in Santa Monica after the SWAT team and K-9 unit moved in to take the suspect into custody.The special tactics unit was called out to the 800 block of Ocean Park Boulevard in Santa Monica just after 12:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon to assist in the situation, after a male Hispanic in his 20s barricaded himself inside an apartment. The specifics of his crime have not been confirmed, but @Venice311 described him as a "murder suspect" in a tweet. The suspect was taken into custody around 4:45 p.m. after tear gas was fired into the apartment and a police dog dragged the suspect down a flight of stairs.
Los Angeles News | FOX 11 LA KTTV
According to FOX 11 residents in other units in the building were evacuated by police and the suspect's family members were brought to the scene to try to coax the suspect out. Police surrounded the building and shouted orders at the suspect to surrender.
Family tells me suspect is a Hispanic male in his 20's, they just arrived to coax him out. #santamonica @myfoxla pic.twitter.com/uMp9xv8FAe
— Christine O'Donnell (@thechristineod) February 21, 2015
"We finally peeked through my front curtains and saw some SWAT members with their guns trained on the apartment upstairs," resident Barry Thurston, Jr. told ABC 7. "The scariest part was coming out and being shielded by all these officers with guns. We felt safe with them, but it was scary," Mary Jo Gumina told the station.
"We have no idea who this guy is, what he did... I knew it had to be be bad, though, because they had guns. So, they couldn’t have been hauling him in for parking tickets," said Thurston.
