Morgan Hill police standoff ends peacefully
Sept. 6, 2015 - KTVU-A SWAT team standoff with an armed robbery suspect in Morgan Hill ended peacefully Sunday. It started Saturday after two men allegedly robbed the GameStop store on Cochrane Road in Morgan Hill shortly after it opened. Police said employees and customers were forced into another room at gunpoint, while the robbers stole cash and game consoles.
"As bad as they come," is how Morgan Hill Police Sgt. Troy Hoefling described the suspect who had hidden inside the Villa Teresa Apartment Homes complex on Berry Court. "Time was on our side. We knew he couldn't go anywhere, so then it was just a matter of surrounding it and waiting for him to come out or going in after him."
That's what SWAT officers did late Sunday morning, going door to door in the evacuated complex. "When they opened up the apartment the suspect was in the dog of course went in first," said Hoefling. "And the suspect gave up."
The drama forced residents who live in the complex to evacuate their homes overnight. "At first I was a little bit scared," said Nora Jemai, who just moved to the complex Saturday. "But then I talked to the other neighbors and they say they never had anything else (like this) before happening."
"I had my three day weekend planned, but that pretty much went right down the hole," Christa Smith said as she returned home. Smith still can't live there. The SWAT team broke windows and doors in her apartment, trying to find the suspect, who lives in the unit behind hers. "He was using the attic and the air vents and stuff to go through other apartments."
if you're going to do this stuff don't bring it to other people"
Smith said she know the suspect, but not well, and certainly never expected this. She had a message for her neighbor. "I would just say keep it in your own house," Smith said. "If you're going to do this stuff, don't bring it to other people."
Police say a second suspect is still on the loose. Investigators are looking into whether the suspects in the GameStop armed robbery are responsible for other robberies in the area.