Man Sneaks Into West Hollywood Apartment, SWAT Team Forces Him Out

WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA – A 36-year-old man, possibly a transient, snuck into a West Hollywood apartment and decided to stay there for more than 14 hours Sunday until he was taken into custody by a sheriff's SWAT team.

At about 9:45 p.m. on Saturday, the West Hollywood sheriff's station received a "Disturbance" call in the 8200 block of De Longpre Avenue, where the informant told them that when he temporarily walked out his apartment, leaving the door open and unlocked, returned to find his door closed and locked, said Deputy Guillermina Saldana of the Sheriff's Information Bureau.

He then told deputies that he believed someone was in his apartment and refusing to come out, Saldana said.

A SWAT team was eventually sent to the location to help West Hollywood station deputies with the barricaded suspect, she said.

Tear gas was fired into the unit after several verbal attempts to persuade him to surrender were made, and failed. About 7:15 a.m. SWAT team deputies made entry into the apartment and detained Benjamin Owen Hales, who was not armed.

"The area was deemed safe and all neighborhood evacuees were allowed to return to their homes," Saldana said.

Hales was arrested on suspicion of burglary and vandalism and booked at the sheriff's West Hollywood station, where he was being held in lieu of $55,000 bail, she said.

The sheriff's West Hollywood station asked anyone with any information regarding the incident to call them at (310) 855-8850.

City News Service contributed to this post.

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