Woman who shot at police robot in custody after 22-hour standoff

Authorities engaged in an armed standoff with an elderly Woodland Hills woman tried tear gas, a flash grenade and a crisis negotiator. When they sent a robot to slowly approach her, she shot at it.

But finally, after 22 hours, the woman who had held a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department SWAT team at bay outside her mobile home since early Thursday was taken into custody.

Sometime overnight the woman, whose name and age have not been released, crawled underneath her home, officials said. At about 3:30 a.m. on Friday, SWAT team members pulled her out, they said.

“It’s very unusual, but we’re just happy that we’re able to bring this to a peaceful resolution,” said Lt. A.J. Rotella of the Sheriff’s Department’s Malibu station. “No one wants to see an elderly woman, for whatever reason she acted this way, no one wanted to see her get seriously hurt.”

The incident began when deputies went to the mobile home park in the 4200 block of Topanga Canyon Boulevard about 5:30 a.m. Thursday after receiving a 911 call about a woman suffering chest pains, said Lt. Jennifer Seetoo.

When deputies arrived, the woman “pulled out a handgun, pointed it” at deputies, then ran deeper into the trailer park, Seetoo said. She was acting erratically and threatening to shoot residents who came any closer, ABC7 reported.

Officials said the woman eventually made it back to her home, where she sat on a chair under her porch awning with the gun in her hand. She didn’t budge even after police used tear gas and flash grenades, and she shot twice at a police robot that approached her, they said.

The woman never made any demands, officials said, and she was taken to a local hospital for evaluation after her arrest.

No deputies were reported injured in the incident.

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