OAKLAND -- An armed gunman holding his wife and two children hostage surrendered early Saturday, ending a standoff with Oakland police that lasted all night and forced dozens of residents from their Jack London Square apartments.

A police spokesman said the 41-year-old Contra Costa parolee surrendered without incident at 4:25 a.m. His wife was being treated for a minor injury and his children, 3 and 5, were not harmed.

Oakland Police sealed off the streets around the Sierra Condos and went door to door inside the building in search of the gunman, who fired at least one shot just before 7:30 p.m. Friday evening.

A neighbor living directly above the loft where the shot was fired said she heard an argument before calling the police.

“I heard a woman screaming so I ran out,” said the woman, who wished to remain anonymous. “And on the balcony directly below me there were two little kids screaming, ‘Don’t fight, Daddy, don’t fight.’ We called the police, the police came… and then gunshots were fired.”

The woman was evacuated along with other residents about 8:45 p.m.

Police say the initial call they received was for a man in the building with a cleaver. When officers reached the fifth floor, the shot was fired.

Mark Leong, a resident, made plans to stay elsewhere Friday night.

“Now it’s frightening,” he said. “So we’re going to go where there are other people around.”

Dozens of people stood outside trying to reach friends and relatives in the building with their cell phones.

Police described the scene as a “barricade situation." They evacuated floors above and below the man's apartment, and nobody was allowed in or out of the building. The streets surrounding the building were also blocked off by police.