AURORA | A confusing combination of crimes led to an eight-hour standoff between a suspected gunman and police at a northwest Aurora apartment, which ended around 9 a.m. Tuesday without injuries or shots fired.
The ordeal started around 1 a.m. when police were called to an apartment on the second floor of the building at 1921 Clinton St. on a report of domestic violence. There, police found a woman who was injured but the man suspected of assaulting her had left the scene. The woman was taken to an area hospital with minor injuries, police said.
About a half hour later, police received a second call from the apartment building. This time, a man called and said the suspect from the earlier assault had pointed a gun at him and then fled into an apartment on the second floor.
Police again responded to the apartment building, said Aurora police Sgt. Chris Amsler, a spokesman for the department.
Amsler said that because police believed there was a gun involved, they stayed a safe distance away, evacuated the building and tried to contact the man.
The man would’t answer the door, commands from a police loud speaker or phone calls until about 9 a.m. when relatives were able to reach him via telephone, Amsler said.
When the stand off ended, the man, four small children and a woman came out of the apartment unharmed, Amsler said. The man was taken into police custody.
Police are trying to determine if the woman and children were being held hostage in the apartment, Amsler said, or if she stayed there on her own.
Investigators do not believe the man who barricaded himself in the second-floor apartment is the same man from the earlier assault, Amsler said.
“These two incidents are totally separate,” Amsler said.
But, because there was a reported felony menacing with a gun, Amsler said police needed to try to contact the man last night.
“We had to investigate, he refused to talk to our officers and this is what happened,” he said.
As of about 9:15 a.m., Amsler said he wasn’t sure if police recovered a gun from the apartment. The suspect from the initial assault was still on the loose, he said.
No names of the people involved have been released.
Amsler said the man who barricaded himself in the apartment could face a charge of felony menacing if police determine he pointed a gun at someone.
During the standoff, dozens of police vehicles and heavily-armed SWAT Team officers surrounded the building near Clinton Street and East Montview Boulevard.
Police had a News4 helicopter leave the area because reporters inside were broadcasting the scene and police were concerned it could compromise officers near the apartment.