A man is allegedly holding his 7-month-old infant daughter hostage in a standoff with police and SWAT officers in Covina Sunday night, officials said.
The standoff started shortly after 3 p.m. and continued into the night past 10 p.m. — an over 7-hour-long ordeal that allegedly started with an argument between the man and his girlfriend, police said.
As it was still dragging on around 9 p.m., police and SWAT officers could be seen surrounding the white car the man is inside near Carl Russell Park, as seen in footage of the scene.
A man is seen holding his infant daughter hostage in Covina on Nov. 26, 2017. (Credit: KTLA)
Earlier, in the afternoon, the couple was arguing in their car when an officer approached them, police said. The man, who is 22 years old, pulled a knife on the officer and made threats to hurt himself.
When officers tried to subdue him by striking him with a taser, police said, they were unsuccessful as he managed to pull the electrical barbs out of him and the standoff continued to go on.
At some point, the woman got out of the car, officials said. A witness told KTLA the woman got out around the same time the police officer first approached the couple.
“I just saw the white car, the sedan, get pulled over by one squad car,” said Brittany Prodan, a witness. “So when I saw that happen, I saw the girlfriend get out.”
Prodan said it was unclear if the woman got out of the car on her own or was forced out.
For hours, the man’s girlfriend and local police pleaded with him to end the standoff and let his infant daughter go free. One witness told KTLA the man was refusing to cooperate with law enforcement and sometimes holding the baby out in front of him.
“He picks the baby up and … sometimes he’ll put the baby in front of him to kind of like block the police,” said Jean Claisse, a witness. “[The police] were saying ‘We want to help you ‘We want to help you’. And he was saying some bad words back to them.”
A woman who identified herself as the man’s mother arrived to the scene just before 9 p.m. Another woman who said she’s the man’s sister also came, and they said the man wouldn’t hurt his baby daughter and loves her.
Throughout the standoff, the man would move in and out of the vehicle, sometimes holding the baby in front of him as police tried to communicate with him through a loud speaker, officials said.
As the man barricaded himself inside the car, officers alerted others in the surrounding area to stay put as they tried to reach the man, according to Prodan.
“As I started up my car and try to exit the parking lot, two other cop cars come and they say ‘You need to stay there,'” Prodan said.
from KTLA http://ift.tt/2i630Ox
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