HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — A suspect is dead after an hours-long standoff at an apartment complex in north Houston overnight, officials said.
Police confirmed to ABC13 on Saturday morning that the barricaded suspect inside an apartment at Warner Street and Tidwell Road died by suicide.
Streets were blocked, and police lights flashed while police, SWAT, and K9 officers surrounded the building, video showed.
In a video shot at the scene, police can be heard through a loudspeaker, telling the suspect, “Come out with your hands in the air.”
Officers said they responded just after midnight, and SWAT members responded once the man went back inside. The man was later found dead in his apartment, police said.
“We were next door, and we heard eight gunshots. We got up and heard police telling him, ‘drop the gun, drop the gun,'” Kaesha Lewis said. “When I tried to take my kids into the room, he started beating on our wall. I had to call and tell (police) we were inside, and they came and cut the window, and we had to get inside the SWAT truck.”
Lewis told ABC13 that before they were rescued, she had to hide with her kids inside a closet. After being evacuated, she said her family spent the rest of the night at the complex’s leasing office.
Lewis described her neighbor as a “nice” man who would feed homeless people and described this incident as “crazy.” She said that officers instructed her to wait until they could get him out, but her neighbor has refused to surrender.
“He came out twice, maybe. The first time he came out, he had a gun pointed at them, and he was smoking a cigarette at the same time,” Lewis recounted.
“I was terrified, my kids were terrified, they were crying…it was scary,” she added.
Lewis said she doesn’t think she’ll be living at the apartment complex much longer. Video showed Lewis was allowed back into her apartment around 7 a.m.
According to police, officers never returned fire, and officers were not injured.
HPD said streets have reopened and an investigation is underway.
This story comes from our news partner ABC13 Houston.