Crime & Safety

Police Surround House on Sherman Oaks Avenue

Four men, one of them armed, were seen in the backyard of a home. Police were called. Residents, including one woman with a baby inside the perimeter, are not being allowed to cross the police line.

Updated at 5:04 p.m.

Police officers with guns at the ready have surrounded a house in the 4300 block of Sherman Oaks Avenue.

Four men, at least two of them armed, were seen in the backyard of a residence and neighbors called police, telling them the men did not belong on the street.

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The Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) unit was called out and the officers, armed with shotguns, began moving in closer to the house where the two remaining suspects were believed to be holed up.

Officers set up a perimeter around the block where Sherman Oaks Avenue meets Sepulveda Boulevard.

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Police say the four suspects committed two armed robberies in the San Fernando Valley Monday afternoon.

One of the robberies occurred near Saticoy Street and Haskell Avenue at 1:45 p.m. and another was reported nearby a short time later at Keswick Street and Burnet Avenue, said Los Angeles Police Officer

A witness followed the suspects, one of whom fired a shot at the witness before the group bailed out of a U-Haul van and fled into a neighborhood in Sherman Oaks, said Officer Karen Rayner.

"We got one of them," said officer Paul Skinner, after talking on his radio. "[We're] sending in a dog to see what we can find out," he added.

Later, around 3:50 p.m., officers reported they had apprehended a second suspect.

Two of the suspects remain at large.

A large crowd of residents watched the action from behind police lines.

The Valley Vista Boulevard offramp from the San Diego (405) Freeway was blocked off as police searched the area.

City News Service contributed to this story


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