Clearwater SWAT Callout Nets Arrest

A 25-year-old Spring Hill man is behind bars in Pinellas after a Thursday night SWAT callout in Clearwater.

The incident unfolded around 7:15 p.m. Thursday when a bail bondsman called Clearwater Police to say a man wanted on warrants in Hernando County was inside an apartment at 411 S. Nimbus Ave., Clearwater Police wrote in an email. When police arrived, people who had been in the apartment said the man authorities wanted was still inside and possibly in possession of multiple weapons.

Hearing that, police called out the SWAT team, evacuated the apartment complex and two nearby businesses “out of an abundance of caution,” the email said.

Chief Dan Slaughter explained, “We wanted to get people out of potential harm’s way.”

For a while, it was unclear if the man was still in the apartment, but he was eventually found hiding in a closest.

Alexander Smith of Spring Hill was brought into custody just after midnight Friday.

Smith has been arrested in Hernando multiple times on charges including cocaine possession, violation of probation and possession of a weapon, according to jail records.

Photo credit: Alexander Smith/Courtesy of the Clearwater Police Department