SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) - A man's refusal to exit a City Heights apartment where police tried to serve a search warrant early Tuesday morning forced evacuations of surrounding homes and an hours-long standoff that ended with the suspect's arrest in the mid-afternoon.
Shortly before 5:00 a.m., police attempted to serve a felony warrant to three people in an apartment complex in the 2700 block of
. The search warrant was for drugs and weapons that were believed to be in the apartment. The three people the police were looking for came out of the building and were placed into custody, along with one juvenile. However another person, who was not on the search warrant, refused to exit the apartment for hours, but around 3:00 p.m., the standoff came to an end.
"The person inside is not who we were looking for. He was there at the apartment and he's preventing us from completing our search warrant. That's why we need to get him out," said Lt. Kevin Mayer with the San Diego Police Department.
A SWAT team, NCIS, and police snipers surrounded the building in an attempt to flush the man out of the apartment. Authorities exercised precaution because they believed, at the time, the man could have been armed. The fire department was also on the scene in case flash bangs or hot gas started a fire.
About 2:45 p.m., the special weapons and tactics personnel stormed the apartment, finding the uncooperative man hiding in a bathroom. They unleashed a service dog, which helped subdue the suspect by biting him on the ankle, Mayer said.
A neighbor who lives next door says he doesn't know the people the police were after, but says he is not surprised they are in trouble.
"I see a lot of different people walking in and out of that house. If anyone sees something like that, you would expect something like that," explained neighbor Charlie Yeoun.
Many of the evacuated residents waited in front of Hamilton Elementary during the standoff. The school was not in session.