Gunman Held After 2-Hour Standoff

A two-hour standoff between an armed man and a police SWAT team ended Saturday afternoon when heavily armored officers entered the Omelveny Avenue house in Pacoima where the gunman had barricaded himself and took him into custody, authorities said.

The unidentified man suffered minor injuries when he was arrested, police said. He was treated at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills and later taken to jail in Van Nuys, authorities said.

The trouble began at 11:35 a.m., when a man was seen carrying a handgun into a home in the 10400 block of Omelveny Avenue and shots were fired, said Sgt. Gordon Wade of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Foothill Division. There was no one else in the house, and police said they don’t know what the man was shooting at.

Witnesses flagged down officers patrolling the area and directed them to a small stucco house at Omelveny Avenue and Carl Street, Wade said.

Police cordoned off a section of the street between Carl and Van Nuys Boulevard and evacuated several homes, Wade said.

SWAT team officers entered the house where the gunman was hiding shortly before 2 p.m. and took the man into custody, Wade said. No officers or residents were injured in the incident, which remained under investigation late Saturday, he said.