SAN DIEGO (NEWS 8) — An hours-long SWAT standoff ended after nearly six hours Sunday night in North Park.
The incident began around 11 a.m. Sunday morning near a 24 Hour Fitness in the Midway District when a man was shot and killed in the 3600 block of Midway Drive.
Soon after, police set up a perimeter around an apartment building at the intersection of 30th and Upas street in North Park; they believed a suspect may be inside.
When it turned out the man they were searching for was not inside the building, SWAT officers were called off.
Jerome Agnew was at his Midway-area home when he heard what he said sounded like fireworks around 11 a.m.
"[I] don't know where he shot him, but he execution-style shot him," said Agnew. "I walked out to my patio and I noticed a white male chasing two other white males through the parking lot and across the lot and I noticed he had a gun. The one white male fell and the suspect stood over him and then shot him."
Agnew says the other man who was being chased tried to help the victim, but he died at the scene.
Meanwhile, the suspect got into a vehicle.
"It looked like they were arguing about something and then I heard two pops and the guy got in the car," said another witness Irwin Gallardo.
Soon police descended on a North Park apartment building.
It's not known what led officers there, but inside they located the suspect's girlfriend.
She was interviewed at the scene while police set up a perimeter around the building. They eventually called in SWAT.
Officers blocked off an area near the front of the building to make a plan, then waited hours for a warrant to enter.
They used a PA system urging the suspect to think about his dog who was inside the apartment.
They also mentioned the suspect's children and acknowledged he was feeling depressed recently.
In the end, they determined he was not inside the building.
Meanwhile back on Midway Drive, homicide investigators continued collecting evidence.
"It's frightening," said Gallardo. "We have kids out here - we're practicing batting swings for t-ball and all of a sudden to hear that is scary. You think you're in a safe neighborhood, but things happen."