Man wearing vest with protruding wires held after 8-hour standoff at Hawthorne Wells Fargo
A man wearing a vest with wires protruding from it barricaded himself inside a Hawthorne Wells Fargo bank branch Wednesday evening, and the ensuing standoff with police lasted eight hours before he was taken into custody.
Hawthorne Police Lt. Jim Royer said the vest was not a bomb and the man was not armed. He was taken into custody about 2:30 a.m. Thursday, Royer said.
The man’s motive was unclear, and Royer said he did not communicate with police “throughout the entire incident.”
About 6:25 p.m., bank workers called authorities when the man — wearing the vest under a camouflage jacket — refused to leave the bank at closing time, said Royer. An employee told authorities that the man had been to the bank previously.
When authorities arrived, they evacuated the bank and used loudspeakers to try to contact the man. At one point, the man was writing something on a piece of paper. Royer said it was “illegible scribbling.”
Authorities sent a robot with a camera inside, which showed the man sitting on the floor.
Shortly before 8:30 p.m., the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department arson and explosive detail was called to the bank in the 13500 block of Hawthorne Boulevard.
Twitter: @AleneTchek
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UPDATES:
3:20 a.m.: Updated with the man being taken into custody.
This article was first published at 11:05 p.m.
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