After Standoff at House, Police Recapture Escapee Sought for 2 Months : Granada Hills: Officers fire tear gas into the residence and find the man, who earlier released hostages.

A man who had escaped from custody more than two months ago was captured by SWAT officers Sunday night after he took hostages and barricaded himself in a Granada Hills residence, police said.

A Los Angeles police special weapons and tactics team took Lee Martin, 36, into custody about 7:50 p.m., ending a standoff that lasted more than eight hours, police said. No injuries were reported.

Police had been searching for Martin, who was listed as armed and dangerous, since he escaped from a holding cell in the Van Nuys Courthouse after a court appearance on a narcotics charge Dec. 30, authorities said. Warrants had been issued for Martin’s arrest on suspicion of possession of narcotics for sale and escape, Capt. Ken Small said.

The chain of events leading to Martin’s capture began Saturday night when Martin, armed with three handguns, kicked in the back door of the house in the 17800 block of Kingsbury Street, looking for a man with whom he had a dispute over money, police said.

When he did not find the man there, Martin took the five occupants of the house hostage, Small said. “Witnesses said he fired some shots, but they were directed at the floor,” he said.

Martin at one point sent some of the hostages out to look for the man. He ordered them to return without notifying police, and they did come back--but one was able to contact a friend first, Small said.

The friend showed up at the Devonshire station about 11:30 a.m. Sunday and alerted police to the situation, he said.

When police arrived in the area, Martin was still holding the hostages, so officers evacuated some residents from the neighborhood and set up a command post nearby, police said.

They tried to negotiate with Martin using the public address system on their cars, Small said, and Martin soon released the hostages. But he refused to leave the house.

Finally, on Sunday evening, the SWAT team fired 10 canisters of tear gas into the residence, police said. Martin was discovered in the attic and arrested on the warrants and suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, Small said.

Authorities had been searching for Martin--who has a tattoo that says “Grim Reaper”--since they found that he was missing from the courthouse holding cell when they arrived to transport him back to County Jail in downtown Los Angeles. He had been accused of possessing cocaine and methamphetamine.