North Austin SWAT Standoff Ends After 7 Hours (Updated)

AUSTIN, TX — A man said to be experiencing a "mental episode" fled from the home police had surrounded for several hours before being taken into custody on Tuesday.

It all began with a call to police at 4 p.m. from the man's wife, who told police he had sent her pictures of a weapon while threatening to harm himself. In response, police sent a SWAT team to the home along the 6400 block of Adair Drive in a tactic typically used by the local force to coax barricaded people to exit dwellings.

Police evacuated area residents as a safety precaution, shepherding them onto a pair of Capital Metro buses that were on loan as makeshift housing, Officer Bino Cardenas told reporters in an impromptu press conference as the standoff dragged on.

The incident ended peacefully by 10:45 p.m. when the man fled from the home, only to be plucked from a nearby field and placed in custody. Cardenas said neither the man nor the officers sustained injuries. The officer didn't mention whether a weapon had been recovered or specify any charges the man faces for failing to comply to their repeated commands to exit the home.

From earlier:

AUSTIN, TX — A police SWAT team descended to North Austin on Tuesday evening after a woman called police her possibly armed husband was having a mental episode.

The call came in at 4 p.m., with police in a standoff with the barricaded person well into the night as of 9:30 p.m. Officer Bino Cardenas told reporters the woman was not home along the 6400 block of Adair Drive at the time of the incident, but called police over concern about his welfare. The caller added the man has a weapon, Cardenas said, as evidenced by photos he sent to her while threatening to harm himself.

Around 10 homes were evacuated as a safety precaution, Cardenas said. Capital Metro has lent two buses to temporarily house the residents displaced by the SWAT initiative "...so that the neighbors can be in comfortably," Cardenas added.

However, save for the two long seats at the front of city buses over which handicapped or elderly riders have priority seating, there are no seats on such vehicles to recline comfortably. It's unknown how many people have been forced into such makeshift lodging or if any children might be among them.

Austin police typically unleash the full arsenal of military-grade equipment — armored vehicles, scene-surveying robots, high-powered rifles, stun grenades, heavy body armor, ballistic sheets, entry tools and the like — when people barricade inside their homes rather than comply with police commands shouted through blare horns to exit their dwellings.

The aim of such a robust police response, Cardenas suggested, is to coax barricaded persons to come out of their home of their own volition in ending such standoffs peacefully. More than five hours in as of 9:45 p.m. that aim hadn't occurred, and Cardenas noted such standoffs sometimes last up to 12 hours.

Cardenas said a peaceful resolution was hoped for in lieu of having to enter the dwelling through use of force. "The ultimat goal is for the subject to come out peacefully, and we can give him the medical attention that he needs," Cardenas said after having pointed out the police arsenal behind him used to try to coax the man out.

Patch will update when more information is known.