5 Children Held Hostage in Home; Standoff Ends Peacefully

A man who held five children hostage at gunpoint in a house on Saticoy Street was in custody Sunday after LAPD SWAT officers negotiated his peaceful surrender, police said.

Valentaini Mataele, 32, was arrested on suspicion of false imprisonment and kidnapping after the 4 1/2-hour standoff at the home he was living at, said Los Angeles Police Sgt. Paul Sciarrillo of the West Valley Division. Police said Mataele is the children’s uncle.

Sciarrillo said police received a call about 7:30 p.m. Saturday that a man was holding children, eight months to 10 years old, hostage in a house in the 20300 block of Saticoy. SWAT crisis negotiators talked Mataele into coming out of the house unarmed about midnight, he said.

No one was injured in the incident, which Sciarrillo said appears to be a domestic dispute. He said police from the Bay Area community of Redwood City were involved in the case, and that the kidnapping may be related to someone having been brought from that city to Los Angeles against their will.