Patrick Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 So, today was rather uh...Interesting. For some reasons I really cannot say at this time, there was a police standoff, about 3 houses down from mine, that went from 5 PM to about 11 PM today. Heres how it went. Originally, my dad decided to call me and tell me how there was a Police Car in front of someones house. Being mildy amused, I went outside to check it out. What the...there are two officers behind it with their pistols drawn? Odd. No more than 10 seconds of being out there, an officer sees me and motions for me to go back inside. Okay, fair enough. Thisll probably be over soon. Wrong. Another police unit then pulls up, and another across the street. Not long after yet another police unit comes up on my side. Well, this is getting tense... Just as the second car on my side pulls up, an officer gets out and takes position a car. More units on the other side of the street also start flanking the house. They managed to road block the street, to make sure nobody gets near the scene... More and more officers and cars keep appearing on the far side of the area, and some officers change position again the near side. Just then, another officer sporting a shotgun walks on up on the near side of my house. He takes position behind another police car. More officers on the far side take cover in front of the elementary school in which children are still present. At this point, several officers started knocking on doors, and I had no idea why. I made a mad dash for my car, hoping to get a good street level view of the whole sitation unfolding. I left that position and took a spot closer to my house, feeling just a tad bit safer there. More police activity continued. At this point, officers headed towards the school to inform everyone of what was going on. I started to cross the street, just to inform my neighbors. The police moved in even closer, making sure the suspect wasnt going to leave. Just after this, one of the first officers with tactical gear showed up. I was then informed that the Garden Grove SWAT team was being assembled at this time. While we waited for them, the officer count continued to grow. Just then, more cars pulled up and put up a crime scene barrier in front of my house. I was then told by an officer to evacuate my house. It stretched all the way across the street. So, I abandoned my camera and other computer gear in my house and moved next door. From then on out, it was a long, unchanging standoff. Around 7-8 ish, two buses pulled up, and out poured the GG SWAT team. Not long after, several sharpshooters took perch in a second story of my neighbors house, a roof, and several other areas in case the situation called for a sniper shot. We had quite a bit of lookers, but mainly it was just the people who were evacd from their houses. The standoff continued into the night. Officers tried contacting the suspect many many times, but he did not respond. He had weapons and was making threats to the police. This is probably where it was getting most tense for everyone. SWAT was ready, snipers in position, officers ready to move in, everything. It turned into a waiting game. They didnt use tear gas or anything, probably since everyone was home and the school nearby. This dragged on into the night, till finally, they were given the clearance to move in. SWAT and officers moved in and took down the suspect without firing a shot. Even though it was a bit anti-climatic, it was much better than having shots going off. Many bystanders were around on my side, and probably wouldnt have known what to do if shots were fired. Overally, pretty tense day, but very interesting as well. I asked a neighbor if anything had ever happened like this while he lived here. And he said that in 30+ years, nothing of this magnitude had ever occurred. Though the snipers who occupied my other neighors house were friendly enough to leave a thank you note! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 Nice. Thank's for sharing. All we have where I live is ambulances hauling off drunk kids to the hospital. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick Posted April 8, 2006 Author Share Posted April 8, 2006 LOL. Honestly? My neighborhood is very quiet. This is seriously something that never happens, so I thought it might not be a bad idea to attempt to photograph it. Oh, and I also do not condone anyone just randomly running about taking pictures in a situation such as this. Ive had training in ROTC (Military Training) in scenarios such as this, and knew what I was doing and where to take cover. Please dont run around and take photos while guns are drawn unless you have some basic combat instinct and know where to take cover at! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BelizeIt Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 Well Patrick, I live in Orange County as well, and everyone knows that Garden Grove is the land of Crack Dealers and Meth Houses! Anyone in the 92840 to 92845 zip code is nothing but trouble! Just kidding, I use to live in Huntington Beach (Just south of Garden Grove), and I've actually spent a lot of time in your city. My friends and I would often head up Magnolia Street to Garden Grove Blvd to go to some great Korean Restaurants. Also, There are many excellent Supermarkets like "Arirang" where you can get many items not available at your local supermarket. Items like thin sliced Pork Sukiyaki, and when you visit the Seafood Dept. It's Fresh! Real fresh infact, because it's still Alive and Swimming in the tank right in front of you! You get to select the live fish you want, and they will, Uhhh.... Prepare it for you, or you can put it in a plactic bag with water and prepare it yourself at home. Anyhow, It's a great city, whenever I'm driving down the 22 Freeway I always stop in for a visit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waterviper Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 Wow Tpr sure is the melting pot of bizarre stories! Get a police standoff PTR and a commentary on a city and fish market all rolled up into a thread!!! Thats some freaky stuff having a police standoff right there pretty much in front of your house!! When I lived in Irvine down there in the OC a criminal of some sort was being chased by police through our apt buildings! We heard some commotion going on outside so I ran to the window to see police running around. It didn't last long because the dude they were chasing ran through fast and so did the police. They ended up catching him in a river bed nearby!! This was a shocker because nothing ever happens in Irvine!! Irivine is very clean and well kept up city. So to see this happen was a big surprise!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoasterCrazy Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 WOW, thanks for posting the awesome Photo TR!!!! The click able words make this Photo TR even better! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DATman Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 ^yes, but the lack of scratch-n-sniff appalled(sp) me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterman7 Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 I live in a neighbor hood where there are only like 14 houses and nothing goes on around here. But there was this one incident where this girl down the street shot her Dad in their foyer and there was 3 poilce cars and an ambulance there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Token Yankee Guy Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 Wow, great Trip Report Patrick. Reminds of a time a few years back when I was driving down this side road in Windsor Locks, CT. And I passed police cars and the bomb truck (the truck used to put bombs into). Then they closed off the road when I passed by. Did the stand off make it into the news or anything? Curious as to what was the purpose for the stand off Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woah_killa Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 My house is like down the street from the ghetto, the other night I saw somebody at a gas station pull a gun on another person...It was sorta freaky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Splash_Mountain Posted April 9, 2006 Share Posted April 9, 2006 I remember staying in Garden Grove when I went to DLR. We drove to some store called Valu-Plus, I was like "This place is so freaky". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebl Posted April 9, 2006 Share Posted April 9, 2006 I pass through Garden Grove on the freeway now and then. That's about as close as I want to get! Thanks for the report, Patrick! And I like the clickable words. I did a trip report like that once. Of note, my wife worked across the street from that notorious Bank of America shootout in North Hollywood a few years back. That was wild. Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
socalMAN123 Posted April 10, 2006 Share Posted April 10, 2006 Dude, that must've been freaky! Sounds weird though. ---Brent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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