Santa Rosa police arrest man after 8-hour siege on Dutton Avenue

Residents on Dutton Avenue in Santa Rosa ‘sheltered in place’ for a SWAT operation during the tense eight-hour-long incident.|

A daylong siege between Santa Rosa police and a man holed up inside a Roseland home ended peacefully Thursday night when the suspect was taken into custody around 7:30 p.m.?More than seven hours after responding to reports of a possibly armed person with hostages, police detained a man in a white T-shirt at a home in the 1500 block of Dutton Avenue between Cherie Way and Funston Drive.

There were no hostages when the man was taken into custody.

Most of the surrounding roads were reopened to residents around? 8 p.m. after a shelter-in-place order had been issued shortly before 2:10 p.m.?Santa Rosa police officers did not immediately release the man’s name, but said he’s suspected of involvement in the attempted armed robbery Tuesday of the Harry’s Market on West Ninth Street, about a mile and a half away from the house where Thursday’s siege took place.

In that attempted robbery, a masked and armed man fired a shotgun near the store clerk’s head when he couldn’t open the locked cash drawer. The suspect fled.

Thursday’s events began around noon when Santa Rosa police received a call about an armed person with possible hostages at a single-family Dutton Avenue home, said Sgt. Summer Black. By about 4 p.m., police no longer believed the man had hostages.

Preliminary police accounts described a standoff with a person armed with a “long-range” gun. Black later declined to confirm such details.

The suspect wasn’t armed when he was taken into custody, Black said, and it was not clear Thursday night clear whether police found any weapons inside the home.

As Santa Rosa patrol officers and a department SWAT team remained stationed outside the home for several hours, police multiple times over a loudspeaker ordered anyone inside to come out with their hands in the air. A few minutes past ?7:30 p.m., after numerous commands including “hands on top of your head” and “do what you’re told” and “walk back to the sound of my voice,” more officers moved toward the south side of the house. The suspect was told to drop to his knees, and then handcuffed.

He was taken into custody without further incident. Before being taken into custody, the suspect never responded to police ?commands, according to Black.

During the encounter, residents were not allowed to return to their homes inside the police perimeter.

Several local residents familiar with the property surrounded by police said there have been many problems with residents there, including late night fights and suspicious foot traffic at all hours.

Joseph Silny, who lives across the street from the house with his wife, Jamie Flynn, said the police have often been called to that same address, “but nothing like this.”

From Silny’s backyard, the SWAT BearCat vehicle parked in the front driveway of the home was visible, as law enforcement officials called out, identifying themselves as being with the Santa Rosa Police Department and commanding whoever was inside to “Exit through the front door with your hands in the air.”

The command was given for several hours without any response.

Local residents watched from behind police tape as heavily armed SWAT members from the Santa Rosa Police Department walked in and around the property, often with weapons drawn.

Sergio Trujillo, 15, who lives across the street from the house where Thursday’s events unfolded, said he often heard late- night fights at the home.

“At night, at one or two in the morning, you hear a bunch of screams in there,” Trujillo said. “It’s almost like a trouble-making house.”

All six schools in the 2,800- student Roseland School District were put on lockdown by the administration, and children were released to their families, said Superintendent Amy Jones-Kerr. The emergency action caused long lines of parents in cars waiting to pick up their kids at every school.

Staff Writer Nick Rahaim contributed to this story.

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