Armed man arrested after 8-hour standoff in Commerce

An armed man was arrested Monday morning after an eight-hour standoff with police at a commercial site in Commerce.

The situation began before 9 p.m. Sunday when California Highway Patrol officers noticed a green GMC pickup truck being driven erratically in northern Orange County.

Suspecting the swerving driver to have been under the influence, officers tried to pull him over, but he sped off, beginning a high-speed chase north to Los Angeles County.

The unidentified driver, who was shirtless and had large tattoos on his chest and arms, eventually left the freeway at Garfield Avenue in the city of Commerce.

He got out of the truck, waved a handgun and pointed it at his head, officers said. He then entered a commercial building on the 7000 block of Bandini Boulevard, according to CHP Officer Francisco Villalobos.

“The suspect started harassing and assaulting employees at that business by pointing his handgun at them,” Sgt. Bob Boese of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department told reporters.

The workers were later evacuated.

Around midnight, deputies from the East Los Angeles sheriff’s station were called in, and a SWAT team was requested as well.

The standoff lasted through the night. Video shows the man pointing the gun at officers and clutching his head in what looks like despair.

A crisis negotiation team was able to contact the suspect on his cellphone and talked to him for over an hour before he surrendered, according to a Sheriff’s Department spokesperson.

He was arrested by the sheriff’s special enforcement bureau about 8:30 a.m. Monday, according to Deputy Guillermina Saldana of the Sheriff’s Department’s Information Bureau. The suspect, whose identity has not been released, was taken to the East L.A. sheriff’s station.

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