SANTA ANA, Calif. - Santa Ana police on Tuesday employed a robot, a dog and a SWAT team in arresting a suspect who apparently toted a rifle into a convenience store before fleeing officers and barricading himself inside aneighboring auto-parts store for hours, a department spokesman said.
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Armed suspect barricaded in Santa Ana store arrested
A rifle-toting suspect barricaded himself in an auto-parts store in Santa Ana on Tuesday for hours before he was taken into custody, police said.
Police were called about 11 a.m. when a suspect entered a 7-Eleven at 103 S. Harbor Blvd. with what appeared to be a long rifle, said Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna.
When officers arrived he ran north into the rear part of an auto-parts store in the 3700 block of West First Street, Bertagna said.
Police got employees of the store out before he barricaded inside,Bertagna said.
Neighboring businesses were evacuated during the standoff and streets were closed outside the store, according to multiple reports from the scene.
"He has come out a few times in the yard area, hiding under cars and then he goes back in," Bertagna said.
SWAT officers were called in to negotiate his surrender and the suspect was later taken into custody, Bertagna said.
Police sent a robot into the store to monitor him and then "all of a sudden, he burst out the door, climbed up the wall and jumped on the roof," Bertagna said, adding that officers on the roof quickly took him into custody.
A "gun-smelling dog" was being used to try to find a weapon, which witnesses said he had been carrying, Bertagna said.