By Casey McNerthney
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
SEATTLE, Wash. — A 13-hour police standoff in Kent ended Saturday evening with a convicted felon in custody after he released four children, police said.
The incident started about 1:30 a.m. Saturday when Seattle police attempted to stop the 30-year-old man driving his mother’s Kia Spectra erratically in South Seattle, State Patrol trooper Jeff Merrill said. Troopers and a police helicopter joined the pursuit, and the man barricaded himself inside his mother’s house at Southeast 221st Place and 116th Avenue Southeast in Kent.
The man’s mother and four children — ages 3, 8, 11 and 12 — were inside the home when the man and police arrived. The woman and one child left the house early Saturday. About 11:20 a.m., police negotiators convinced the man to release the other three children, who are not his, Merrill said.
The three children were not physically hurt, but some were crying when SWAT officers ran them away from the house.
Neighboring homes were evacuated and police said they found a handgun and spent gun shells in the Kia. Trooper Cliff Pratt said South Seattle residents told police a man matching the suspect’s description was shooting into the air, and police are investigating if he was involved in a South Seattle shooting Friday that left a man shot in the arm.
The felon had an “amazing” criminal history, Pratt said, and had been in a police standoff before. He was on probation, and not allowed to carry the handgun that was in the car, Pratt said.
When repeated phone calls from negotiators failed and the man threatened to injure himself, police sent pepper spray into the house.
“That caused him to come out peacefully,” Pratt said. “We’re lucky that nobody was hurt.”
Copyright 2007 Seattle Post-Intelligencer