Crime & Safety

UPDATE: Hostage Situation Takes Over Neighborhood

Police surrounded a home on Lawrence Avenue after shots were fired Wednesday evening.

One man is down inside a Lawrence Avenue home Wednesday evening and a second man, armed with a gun, was in a standoff with police following an exchange of gunfire, authorities reported.

Officers were called to a family disturbance and a possibly injured person at 72 Lawrence Ave. around 5:40 p.m., Deputy Police Chief Rudy Escalante said. 

The first officer to the home, off Green Valley Road in a residential neighborhood, knocked on the front door and a white man answered, Escalante said. The two conversed, but then the man ran back into the home. The officer gave chase, hoping to find out if anyone inside was hurt, police reported.

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There was a scuffle between the two and an exchange of gunfire, Escalante said. He said the officer was unhurt and police don't believe the other man was hurt.

While inside the house, the officer saw another man down on the ground, bloody, Escalante said.

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It's unknown if that man is dead.

Officers surrounded the home, evacuated nearby houses and set up a command post up the street in the parking lot of . A hostage negotiator had been working to establish and maintain contact with the armed man, Escalante said.

However, communication from the house ceased before 7 p.m. Later in the night, the SWAT team inserted an audio device into the house to monitor what was occurring inside, Escalante said.

Police didn't hear anything.

"We're still out here," the deputy chief said around 10:45 p.m. "We're trying to collect intelligence."

Just after midnight, Escalante said a robot was firing a water cannon at a door of the home to try to make entry. The goal is to put a camera in the home to scope out what the situation is before deciding if officers will be sent inside.

Police said the two men are believed to be the only people in the house. 

Neighbors who heard the men fighting were the ones who intially alerted police to the emergency.

"There was some sort of distrubance between the two men," Escalante said, adding that police don't know what the pair was fighting about.

The house is home to a family. Police did not identify the men inside the home, but said the majority of the family was not home with the situation started and have been kept from the property.

Nearby residents who had to evacuate have been provided emergency shelter, police said.


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