Building Evacuated, Suspect Held : Crime: Apartments are emptied, but armed man allegedly holding son hostage is arrested when later found driving.

Police surrounded and evacuated an apartment building Saturday in response to reports of an armed and distraught man holding his 11-year-old son hostage--only to find him driving around the Valley with the child and weapons in his truck.

Michael Akiro John, 34, was arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon, a felony, for an alleged earlier attack on his estranged wife’s friends. He was being held at the North Hollywood police station in lieu of bail.

John’s son, from a previous relationship, was unhurt and was placed in protective custody, police said.

The drama began shortly after 11 a.m. in the 5800 block of Whitsett Avenue, when friends of John’s wife, Heidi--who left him on Thanksgiving--arrived to retrieve her belongings, said Lt. Nick Zingo of the Los Angeles Police Department’s North Hollywood Division.

They told police they were greeted by a despondent John, who allegedly wore several handguns in his waistband, held another gun at his side and ordered them to enter the apartment with their hands up, Zingo said. The child was also in the apartment, Zingo said.

John spoke of suicide, the family friends told police. “He said he had only 24 hours to live and that if anyone tried to stop him, he’d take them with him,” Zingo said.

The friends were allowed to collect Heidi John’s belongings and leave the apartment; they then phoned for help, Zingo said.

By the time police arrived at about 12:15 p.m. and dispatched about 20 officers and members of the Strategic Weapons and Tactics team throughout the neighborhood, it was unclear whether John was still in the apartment. Nonetheless, police ordered all occupants of the 22-unit apartment building evacuated, and cordoned off surrounding streets.

John and the child were stopped hours later in his pickup truck near the corner of Bellaire Avenue and Hatteras street. Zingo said John had four .45-caliber handguns and a rifle with him.

Inside the apartment, police found a 12-inch serrated hunting knife, a hunting bow with arrows, a Japanese ceremonial sword, two additional handguns and more than 2,000 rounds of ammunition, Zingo said.

Zingo said that when John was questioned by police, he was “confused, going in and out of reality.”