Dennis RomeroUpdate at the bottom: It's over. First posted at 12:37 p.m.
You know you're a prolific hoarder when you get a visit from code enforcement officers.
Cops and reports indicate this particular Long Beach hoarder (photos on the next page) fought back this morning when city inspectors came to his home in the 6100 block of John Ave. One of the code enforcement officials was shot, according to reports.
And then the suspect engaged cops in a standoff, leading to …
… the deployment of a Long Beach Police Department SWAT team.
City News Service reports that it all started about 8 a.m. when the inspectors came to the suspect's home and gunfire erupted.
The victim was expected to survive, LBPD's Nancy Pratt told CNS. (We have a call into her too.)
Photographer Stephen Carr has been reporting from the scene via Twitter: He says that the suspect was known to neighbors as a hoarder whose mother had recently died.
From his descriptions, including Carr's report that a Volkswagen was being towed from the residence, we found these Google Maps photos that appear to show the home.
Credit: Google Maps
Credit: Google Maps
[Added at 1:01 p.m.]: Pratt of Long Beach police tells us code enforcers were there with cops at about 7:50 a.m. to serve an inspection warrant that would have allowed them to go on the property and start a clean-up effort without the owner's permission. Pratt:
We [police] were accompanying them because this location has been a problem for them in the past.
One inspector was shot in the head, she says, and sustained a non-life-threatening wound.
It's not clear if cops returned fire, but she says that the suspect has been popping off shots pretty much during the whole standoff, Pratt said.
Some neighbors have been evacuated and others were warned via reverse 911 calls to “stay inside and keep doors and windows locked,” she says.
LBPD Chief Jim McDonnell told reporters at the scene that the residence has been a known “blighted location” for the last few years.
[Update at 3:34 p.m.]: City News Service reports that, after officers sent a K9 unit's dog into the home, the suspect surrendered. That happened at about 2:30 p.m.
[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]
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