WESTLAKE (CNS) - A man with a knife was barricaded inside a Westlake house for about 5 1/2 hours while a police SWAT team surrounded the residence, authorities said today.
The siege started just before 6 p.m. Tuesday when police received calls that a suspect in his 40s or 50s was in the 500 block of Burlington Street allegedly chasing and threatening passersby with a knife, according to Sgt. Ricardo Acosta of the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart Station.
Acosta said the suspect went into a bungalow and refused to come out when police knocked on the door.
A SWAT team was called and “a few neighboring residences” were evacuated, he said. Other neighbors sheltered in place.
About 11:20 p.m. SWAT officers fired about 10 rounds of tear gas into the home and the suspect was taken into custody about five minutes later, Acosta said.
“He came out a little confrontational,” the sergeant said. “They had to use a little force at the end.”
The suspect was taken to a hospital for treatment of minor injuries suffered in the scuffle with officers, he said.
Evacuated neighbors were allowed to return home, Acosta said.
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