SWAT shootout at our apartment!
We were leaving for some errands yesterday and as we drove from our parking space onto the internal street in our apartment complex, we saw a SWAT truck slowly working its way up the street with four combat attired special police units using the truck as a shield.
More units were arriving, so we decided to return to the apartment to see what would happen. The SWAT teams were deploying in areas around an apartment building in our complex next to ours - well, sort of one building over from our end of our building but line of sight.
There were troops in the patios on the gournd floor beneath our balcony, and they eventually went upstairs in the building to the side. Later we learned they had taken over one lady's apartment, turned her couch over and used it as cover to set up and get the suspect in their sights.
In fact, when the SWAT truck stopped in position, there were two snipers with their rifles centered on a particular apartment. We couldn't see the actual apartment, as it was the fourth and final one on the end of that building and we could only see the first three form our balcony.
Well, nothing much happened for half an hour, so we decided to leave for our errands.
Strangely, no one stopped our car and one of the cops at the front entrance said we could come back in when we returned.
One errand was for a new transparent mini-ruler for Teresa for her artwork, the other was for a 50 foot ethernet cable for our new blue-ray disc player my daughter and son-in-law just gave us for my birthday (last month) and Teresa's later this month.
So, we returned and another cop stationed at the entrance to the complex wouldn't let us (or anyone else) drive in. But, we could park on the street in the no-parking zone and walk in. So we did, passing a couple of local TV station sattelite trucks which had positioned themselves on the edge of the complex.
No sooner had we settled in but we heard gun shots. First about six of them, then several minutes with nothing, and then more. Altogether there were maybe two dozen shots over the space of an hour or so. Some were smart cracks and others dull blasts, and a few were shot-gun sounding reports.
Several times we heard glass shattering. And, since we had a show going on, we decided we needed dinner as well. So, we sat down to a nice meal I prepared for dinner and a show.
Finally, after a couple of hours, the snipers came down and the SWAT truck moved, the regular cops came in and the fire department. So, we went downstairs along with a few other reckless tennants to see what it was all about.
Turns out a guy they wanted to arrest with a warrant refused entry and blockaded his apartment, claiming to have weapons, hostages and a bomb. (And still they let us walk into our apartment!). But, in the end he didn't actually have any of those things and the only gunfire was non-lethal rounds (like beanbags or rubber bullets) and gas cannisters busting through the windows.
Maybe I'll edit the 20 minutes of video including the gunshots and put it up on YouTube sometime soon, and if so, I'll post it here.
More units were arriving, so we decided to return to the apartment to see what would happen. The SWAT teams were deploying in areas around an apartment building in our complex next to ours - well, sort of one building over from our end of our building but line of sight.
There were troops in the patios on the gournd floor beneath our balcony, and they eventually went upstairs in the building to the side. Later we learned they had taken over one lady's apartment, turned her couch over and used it as cover to set up and get the suspect in their sights.
In fact, when the SWAT truck stopped in position, there were two snipers with their rifles centered on a particular apartment. We couldn't see the actual apartment, as it was the fourth and final one on the end of that building and we could only see the first three form our balcony.
Well, nothing much happened for half an hour, so we decided to leave for our errands.
Strangely, no one stopped our car and one of the cops at the front entrance said we could come back in when we returned.
One errand was for a new transparent mini-ruler for Teresa for her artwork, the other was for a 50 foot ethernet cable for our new blue-ray disc player my daughter and son-in-law just gave us for my birthday (last month) and Teresa's later this month.
So, we returned and another cop stationed at the entrance to the complex wouldn't let us (or anyone else) drive in. But, we could park on the street in the no-parking zone and walk in. So we did, passing a couple of local TV station sattelite trucks which had positioned themselves on the edge of the complex.
No sooner had we settled in but we heard gun shots. First about six of them, then several minutes with nothing, and then more. Altogether there were maybe two dozen shots over the space of an hour or so. Some were smart cracks and others dull blasts, and a few were shot-gun sounding reports.
Several times we heard glass shattering. And, since we had a show going on, we decided we needed dinner as well. So, we sat down to a nice meal I prepared for dinner and a show.
Finally, after a couple of hours, the snipers came down and the SWAT truck moved, the regular cops came in and the fire department. So, we went downstairs along with a few other reckless tennants to see what it was all about.
Turns out a guy they wanted to arrest with a warrant refused entry and blockaded his apartment, claiming to have weapons, hostages and a bomb. (And still they let us walk into our apartment!). But, in the end he didn't actually have any of those things and the only gunfire was non-lethal rounds (like beanbags or rubber bullets) and gas cannisters busting through the windows.
Maybe I'll edit the 20 minutes of video including the gunshots and put it up on YouTube sometime soon, and if so, I'll post it here.
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