For 16 grueling hours, Riverside Sheriff’s Deputies kept their guns trained at a home in Southern California, ready to battle it out with a gunman inside.
It was a dangerous scene, they told neighbors, forcing residents to evacuate their homes and forcing them off the block for their safety.
With a helicopter hovering above and an armored car parked outside, deputies used their megaphone to communicate with the armed suspects inside.
As the night progressed, their attempts to create dialogue with the suspects went ignored, leaving the deputies no choice but to throw three flash grenades inside the home.
When there was still no response, they sent in a robotic vehicle to clear the coast.
And finally, they forced their way inside with a battering ram.
And found nobody.
According to the Desert Sun:
The standoff began at about 11 a.m. Monday and it lasted into Tuesday morning.
Earlier Monday, Riverside County Sheriff’s Deputy Michelle Ploesch said someone was inside a home with a gun. She said she did not know the suspect’s gender or whether anyone else was inside the home.
Authorities evacuated nearby homes shortly after the standoff began, Ploesch said.
For part of the afternoon, an officer on a megaphone warned occupants that the home was surrounded and told someone inside to “come out with your hands up.” A police helicopter circled overhead.
This article does not mention Ploesch by name but says the standoff began when a deputy came across a car that she thought belonged to a man involved in another shooting.
She called for backup, which led to the evacuations starting at 11 a.m., lasting until 3 a.m. after they had forced entry.
The post Southern California Deputies Evacuate Neighborhood, Use Flash Grenades, Battering Rams During 16-Hour Standoff With Empty Home appeared first on PINAC.