Suspect still at large after armed SWAT standoff in Winnetka home

WINNETKA, Calif. (FOX 11 / CNS) - Members of a Los Angeles Police Department SWAT team entered a home in Winnetka on Friday in which an armed man was thought to have been barricaded after pointing a gun at police, but the suspect was not inside,
authorities said.

The man had run into a stranger's home near Oso Avenue and Leadwell Street, said Officer Sal Lopez of the Los Angeles Police Department's Metropolitan Division. Lopez said the man pointed a gun at police officers who
attempted to stop him in that area at 10:48 p.m. Thursday, but the man did not shoot.

The suspect ran from police and broke into a stranger's home.

According to LAPD Officer Norma Eisenman, a woman who was inside the residence ran outside and told officers she thought the man was hiding inside.

SWAT officers surrounded the residence, and around 4:45 a.m. they fired tear gas into the structure. About 6:15 a.m., the officers entered and determined that the suspect was not inside, Eisenman said.

Winnetka was previously the scene of a tragedy for the LAPD SWAT team, which suffered one officer killed and one wounded on Feb. 7, 2008, in the 19800 block of Welby Way. Killed was 51-year-old Officer Randal Simmons, the only member of the LAPD SWAT team, which came into being in 1967, ever killed on duty, while 51-year-old Officer James Veenstra was wounded by shots in the face and jaw. Two other officers suffered minor injuries.

Edwin Rivera, 20, who earlier had killed his father and two older brothers, was identified as the shooter and killed by a sniper.

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