Santa Monica Neighborhood Evacuated as SWAT Team Surrounds Barricaded Suspect

Residences were evacuated, a helicopter orbited low and a sheriff’s special weapons team was called in to assist with a barricaded suspect in Santa Monica today.

The special weapons team was dispatched to Ocean Park at Lincoln boulevards at 12:32 p.m. to the assist the sheriff’s Department’s Major Crimes Bureau with the barricaded suspect, said Deputy Sara Rodriguez of the Sheriff’s Information Bureau.

The crime scene was still active 90 minutes later.

Rodriguez had no information about the nature of the crime that the suspect was suspected to have committed. Santa Monica police and fire paramedics were stationed near there in a support role.

The original dispatch was to 827 Ocean Park Blvd., apparently an apartment house behind the gas station at the northeast corner of the busy intersection. A grocery store, numerous residences and small businesses and a junior high school are in the immediate area.

According to sources at the scene, roads were closed in the area of Ocean Park and Lincoln boulevards, where a sheriff’s helicopter was orbiting low and ordering someone to surrender.

• City News Service
• Photo Credit: Twitter users Daniel Beaman ‏@DanBeamanPhoto and Zadi ‏@Zadi

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