BELLEVUE - A 27-year old Bellevue man is in jail after an eight-hour police standoff sparked by an argument with his girlfriend, police said.
"They were upset over kids with dirty diapers," said Marcia Harnden with Bellevue Police.
The standoff forced the evacuation of more than 30 apartment units at the Hidden Village Estates in the 14500 block of SE 24th Street. Other residents had to remain in lockdown inside their homes during the incident.
"I wish he would just come out." said Rayanna Scott, who was holding her daughter outside the complex, five hours into the standoff. "I was in the process of feeding my daughter breakfast, when police came to my door saying we had to be escorted because my next door neighbor."
Investigators said they got the 911 call at about 11:45 a.m. The relative of a 14-year old boy told a dispatcher the teen had witnessed a man physically assaulting the woman and said the man was armed with a handgun.
The girlfriend was able to escape the apartment with two young children before police arrived, but the man barricaded himself inside, Harnden said, at one point even throwing back a phone police had tossed into the apartment. Police said the suspect has a history of firearms possession and an extensive criminal history.
"The whole time I've been living here I've heard people fighting, commotion [in that unit]," Scott said.
Over the next several hours, Bellevue PD's SWAT team began shooting tear gas and other chemical agents into the apartment. As that increased, they increased the evacuation area to include more, but not all, of the 78 units at the complex.
"He's moving around trying to avoid it and we use different chemical agents that will counteract their ability to combat it," Harnden said.
At 7:55 PM, the suspect relented and was taken into custody without further incident, said Harnden. He was booked into the King County Jail for first-degree assault.
A 3-month old puppy was taken from the apartment and treated at a nearby veterinary hospital for chemical exposure.
The victim and her children are staying at an undisclosed location for the night, said investigators.
During the standoff, police housed evacuees in a public transit bus on scene, as well as a temporary off-site shelter. Many neighbors, though, just stood on the sidewalk, watching the rifle-carrying SWAT team members and wondering when they could go home.
Most residents were allowed to go back home after the man was arrested, but officers with gas masks remained to check out the third floor, where the man was barricaded, to make sure the chemicals had dissipated.
With all the fatal police-involved shootings and tasings around the region this past week, neighbors said a peaceful resolution is a welcome change of pace.
"Nobody ever wants to use lethal force or brutal force," said Harnden. "We do know that once we can get them talking, time is on our side. And that is always the aim... in this case, we used chemical agents to motivate him."
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