Armed Uber passenger taken into custody in Los Angeles after standoff
(KTLA) – Helicopter footage captured an hourslong standoff between Los Angeles police and an armed Uber passenger who refused to leave the vehicle Wednesday morning, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
The original 911 call came in around 7:35 a.m. PT, police said, when an Uber driver contacted LAPD to report a passenger in the vehicle with a gun.
The driver managed to make it out of the vehicle safely, telling authorities that the armed passenger was refusing to exit.
Responding officers surrounded the vehicle in the Mount Washington neighborhood on the city’s northeastern side.
A negotiator started communicating with the suspect as of 9:45 a.m.
Video shot by Nexstar’s KTLA showed officers surrounding the Uber vehicle with their guns drawn at 10 a.m. The standoff came to an end when officers took the passenger into custody at 10:40 a.m.
The standoff interrupted transit and driving routes through the area. The Metro transit system issued an alert on social media regarding the closure, saying that there would be no train service between Highland Park and Heritage Square due to the police activity. Streets in the area were also blocked off.