Bellevue SWAT Team Arrests Barricaded Suspect

Bellevue Police SWAT team members arrested a 75-year-old man who was barricaded in his Newport Hills home Thursday after they say he threatened to shoot someone who had done some remodeling work for him.

The incident started at about 11:30 a.m. when police were called to a disturbance in the 6400 block of 129th Avenue Southeast.  The resident said the suspect had broken into his home and threatened to shoot him, according to Officer Seth Tyler.

They found the suspect, who Tyler said has threatened police previously, at his home in the 12500 block of Southeast 52nd Street and surrounded the house. At about 12:45 p.m., the man came onto his back porch and fired a gun, though he didn’t appear to be aiming at anything in particular. Police evacuated neighbors and closed off the street while the SWAT team and hostage negotiators tried to contact the man.

Negotiators talked to him on the phone, and he asked to talk with one of them at the door, then came out into the driveway, where police shot him with a 40-mm "less lethal" round--a type of sponge--and took him into custody at about 2:30 p.m., Tyler said.

The man threatened to hurt police officers if they came onto his property Thursday, Tyler said. “So this is a great outcome today that we were able to take him into custody without any injuries to our officers or the suspect,” he said.

The man is being investigated on suspicion of burglary, second-degree assault and discharging a firearm in the city, Tyler said.

Police said they’ve had several contacts with the man, who has had disputes with neighbors in the past.

The emailed area parents whose children walk home, notifying them of the incident and asking them to pick up their children at the school.