Police surround apartment building looking for gunman
Posted: Mar 2, 2012 12:23 PM EST | Updated: Nov 5, 2014 7:24 PM EST
SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Officers surrounded an apartment building with their guns drawn, ordering residents out one by one in search of an armed man who they thought was inside.
Nearly ten squad cars were parked around the building, on the corner of Johnson and Lathrop Streets, just after 12 a.m. Friday.
South Bend officers said six to eight people were at a party with alcohol involved when the man allegedly pulled out a gun and started waving it.
Officers used bullhorns to call out the residents, who filed out singly with their arms in the air, then stormed the building looking for the man.
The scene resembled that of a SWAT standoff, and police said that strategy is the standard procedure whenever a person is allegedly armed.
“It's safer for the residents to have the people come out to the offices, than to have the officers possibly get into an armed confrontation, at a doorway,” said Lt. Steve Noonan.
Noonan said when officers entered the apartment, they did not find the man they were looking for.
Police said no one in the building could identify the gunman, and as of Friday morning, they did not know where he was.
"It's frustrating because obviously we don't want somebody up here, possibly intoxicated, with a weapon in this small apartment complex,” said Noonan. “We would have liked to fully investigate it, but at this point we have come to the end.”
Noonan said officers planned on tracking down the property manager to try and get an identification of the gunman.
Officers filed a report and sent it to the St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s office.
No one was hurt and no arrests were made.
