Armed suspect surrenders to police after 6-hour standoff in downtown Fresno

Police officers and the bomb squad on Monday were involved in a six-hour standoff with an armed man outside the Union Bank in downtown Fresno.

The man surrendered peacefully to police at around 10:15 p.m., Fresno police Lt. Rob Beckwith said.

Beckwith said the police response included the bomb squad due to a canister-like object seen near the suspect during the standoff.

Officers found that he had a sawed-off shotgun loaded with one round of ammunition with him. The canister he was carrying turned out to be a piece of air condition equipment from an automobile.

Information about the suspect was not available.

The incident started around 4 p.m. when officers received reports of a man with a weapon standing in front of the bank on Kern Street between E and F streets.

Officers arrived and found the armed man outside of the bank. Beckwith said the suspect did not respond to officers’ demands to drop the weapon.

Officers created a perimeter on the area and safely evacuated the bank and surrounding businesses.

Beckwith said officers then negotiated with the suspect for the next six hours. Beckwith said the suspect was not communicative initially but he also was not aggressive toward anyone.

This story was originally published March 8, 2021 at 7:06 PM.