Crime Time

SWAT: More details from standoff in northwest Fort Worth

A 27-year-old man was in police custody Friday evening after he engaged the Fort Worth SWAT team for more than five hours in a standoff on the city’s northwest side.

Justin Hallmark was being evaluated at a Fort Worth hospital after SWAT officers used gas and a "non-lethal" device to take him into custody, said Sgt. Kelly Peel, police spokesman.

The SWAT team responded around noon to a report of a suicidal person at the home in the 8500 block of Lake Country Drive, near the south end of Eagle Mountain Lake.

Officers also were called to the home Thursday night on a similar complaint.

"The threat diminished," Peel said, "so SWAT was not utilized overnight."

On Friday, however, Hallmark appeared suicidal. His mother was in the house then, and "she was in danger at one point," Peel said. He added that Hallmark "was threatening assault" with a handgun.

She was not in the home when SWAT launched gas at abot 5:21 p.m.

It was a "pivotal" time to do that, Peel said, because Hallmark was seen on a balcony with no weapon.

"A less-than-lethal foam round was deployed into the leg of the suspect," Peel said.

He added that Hallmark faces a charge of aggravated assault.

-- Bill Miller

Twitter: @Bill_MillerST

UPDATE: SWAT standoff ends in northwest Fort Worth

A man was arrested around 5:30 p.m. Friday after engaging a SWAT team for more than five hours in the 8000 block of Lake Country Drive in northwest Fort Worth.

Scanner traffic indicated that gas and a "less lethal" device were part of the SWAT toolbox in the standoff. The neighborhood is near the south end of Eagle Mountain Lake.

Officials for Saginaw schools said their buses were routed around the area.

Details that lead to the standoff were not immediately available early Friday evening.

-- Bill Miller

 

Happening now: SWAT standoff in NW FW; shooting on east side

Our shift began around 2 p.m. and right away we started monitoring a standoff between Fort Worth SWAT and a man at a home on Lake Country Drive. That's in northwest Fort Worth, near the south end of Eagle Mountain Lake.

This started around noon. We're waiting on an update while chasing other stories.

For example, it seemed there was a spate of shootings around 3 p.m. on the opposite end of town. With visions of a running gun battle in mind, we started checking into them.

It turns out there was just one shooting. Officer Sharron Neal, police spokeswoman, had this explanation:

"This is what we know right now: We have only one victim who made several calls. The victim stated he was in the area of 4616 Miller and was shot by an unknown (man) for no reason. The victim advised that he drove away from the scene and called police several times until he reached the location on Cottey Street where his family called MedStar. The victim was transported to an area hospital with non life threatening injuries."

That's about all we're going to have on that incident, but check back to see how the SWAT standoff ends.

 -- Bill Miller

Twitter: @Bill_MillerST

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Your Blotter: Homicide; cop dragged behind car; a standoff; gas station robbed

Terry Evans and Jessamy Brown don't normally write about crime for the Star-Telegram, but they had their hands full of it Friday while filling in for vacationing colleagues.

Here's some of the headlines they generated:

Fatal shooting in far east Fort Worth investigated

Off-duty Godley police officer dragged by suspect vehicle

Standoff in Fort Worth ends without incident

Gas station robbed in southwest Fort Worth

-- Bill Miller

 

Taser wins in stand off with samurai sword

A man holding a samurai sword was subdued with Taser Friday afternoon as officers tried to serve him with a felony drug warrant in north Fort Worth, a police spokesman said.

The incident began around 3 p.m. in the 5000 block of Exposition Way. The neighborhood is east of the intersection of North Beach Street and Heritage Trace Parkway.

Police were assisting sheriff’s deputies who were serving the warrant on a 20-year-old man.

Sgt. Pedro Criado, the spokesman, said a homeowner let officers into the home, but the man they were looking for was in a bedroom.

"He had the door shut and they were calling for him to come out," Criado said. "When he finally did, he had a sword in his hand."

That’s when police used the Taser.

Officers described the blade as a samurai sword, Criado said.

Sheriff’s spokesman Terry Grisham said at about 4 p.m. that the incident had concluded and the man would be checked by medical professionals and then brought to jail.

Deputies assigned to serving warrants work 16 hours a day and they are frequently backed up by police, Grisham said.

"We’re happy to have their assistance," Grisham said, adding that deputies don’t carry Tasers.

Said Criado, "We assisted with less-lethal coverage."

-- Bill Miller

Texan mistakenly arrested for burglarizing his own home on trial just the same

After a neighbor called police to say a man had broken into an East Texan's home, officers surrounded the house and ordered the suspected burglar to come out. When he didn't, officers kicked in the door, shot him repeatedly with a pepper spray gun, and tackled him the living room. They arrested him for burglary. Then police had an uh-oh moment. Turns out, the man lived in the house. Also turns out he doesn't speak English. Still, he's on trial for evading arrest in the incident.  Jurors, what's your verdict?

Police use beanbag, brute force to end hours-long standoff

Police in Los Angeles had to pull a man from his red Volkswagen Beetle Thursday after an hours-long standoff near the federal building.

The man, who police said had made threats against the White House in a phone call to police dispatchers, had refused to leave the vehicle. Police already had used chemical agents against him to no effect, before shooting out a window with a bean bag weapon and pulling him out.

-- Lance Murray

Deputy, ex-police officer gunman die in Texas standoff

The tense and deadly standoff in a Baytown, Texas, mobile home has ended, after authorities say they found the body of a former police officer who they said killed a deputy earlier in the day. Officials believe the gunman may have died in a gun battle with officers earlier, television station KPRC reported.

The incident started with a meter reader who was sent to cut off the mobile home's water was shot at by a woman. Deputies took her into custody as the standoff ensued.

-- Lance Murray

Standoff ends with student shot dead by officers

Police in Pennsylvania have fatally shot a university student after a standoff in a residence.

The student, identified as Joseph Frederick Briggs, 22, had threatened to hurt himself and his roommates. He was a student at Seton Hall University.

After others fled the house, police say Briggs threatened officers with a gun, firing at officers and hit a house and parked cars.

Police say he was intoxicated.

You can read more here.

-- Lance Murray

Two officers shot in San Antonio standoff

A San Antonio newspaper is calling the series of events that led up to the wounding of two officers during a shootout late Monday the "war of the Vargases."

Officers serving a warrant tied to a domestic-violence shooting earlier in the week were fired on by a man with an automatic rifle at his home, the San Antonio Express-News reported in its online edition.

The officers were let into the home by the man's son and the man, Andres Vargas, opened fire on them with an automatic weapon, according to the report.

San Antonio police then rammed through a gate in front of the house and rescued the officers from the property, carrying at least two away and exchanging fire with the gunman at times, the Express-News reported.

The suspect committed suicide.

Read the full account here.

--Andrew Chavez; photo by Gloria Ferniz, San Antonio Express-News via AP