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Residents near 1995 South and West Temple were awakened early Thursday by the sounds of police breaking windows and doors at a nearby home where a wanted man was holed up with a gun.
Neighbors said they heard officers fire pepper balls and tear gas canisters into the house, and shout at the suspect over a bullhorn.
Nearly nine hours later the man surrendered.
Westwood Avenue, a dead-end street, is an area where neighbor Tracy Painter said she usually feels her children can safely go outside and play because most people know each other. But Thursday, her feeling of security was shaken.
"Nobody wants this in their neighborhood," Painter said.
She said police knocked on her door at 2 a.m., warning the family to move to the east side of the house, away from what was happening at the home directly west of them.
"There wasn't much sleeping that went on," Painter said.
The man did not live at the home, which has been for sale since last summer. Painter said she sees short-term traffic "coming and going at all hours of the day."
The standoff ended mid-morning Thursday after police agreed 32-year-old Arturo Chavez could hug his three children before going to jail.
Events began about1 a.m., when members of the Joint Criminal Apprehension Team (JCAT) attempted to serve a felony drug warrant on Chavez, who was called a known gang member.
JCAT spokesman Jim Phelps said 21 members of the multijurisdictional fugitive task force, led by U.S. Marshals, surrounded the home.
What could have been a fairly routine arrest escalated when an officer saw Chavez grab a gun.
Chavez initially refused all demands to surrender, even enduring tear gas attacks that forced his girlfriend to flee the home.
He now faces possible charges for felony possession of a firearm and possession of a fire arm by a known drug user.
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