{"id":60384,"date":"2015-02-06T13:30:31","date_gmt":"2015-02-06T21:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theavtimes.com\/?p=60384"},"modified":"2015-02-09T14:20:50","modified_gmt":"2015-02-09T22:20:50","slug":"man-found-dead-after-lancaster-standoff-house-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2015\/02\/06\/man-found-dead-after-lancaster-standoff-house-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Suspect found dead after Lancaster standoff, house fire"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The fire was reported around 11:07 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 5, at a home in the 45300 block of Gadsden Avenue in Lancaster, officials said. (Photo by LUIS MEZA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LANCASTER – A body believed to be that of a convicted felon who had refused to surrender to authorities was found just before midnight in a Lancaster house that caught fire after a SWAT team deployed a \u201cflashbang\u201d grenade and tear gas into the structure, authorities said.<\/p>\n

The body was found at the scene of the fire in the 45000 block of Gadsden Avenue, said coroner’s Assistant Chief Ed Winter. The identity and cause of death were not immediately known, Winter said.<\/p>\n

\"Members<\/a>
Members of the sheriff’s special weapons team extinguished the blaze, authorities said. (LUIS MEZA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The sheriff’s department reported that the deceased is a man who had been wanted on an arrest warrant. A sheriff’s Special Weapons Team was sent to the location about 7:30 p.m. Thursday to arrest “a known felon in possession of a firearm,” the sheriff’s department reported.<\/p>\n

\u201c[We] had a search warrant for the house in the 45300 block of Gadsden,\u201d said Lancaster Sheriff\u2019s Station Captain Pat Nelson, adding that the suspect was believed to be involved in drug sales and had an extensive criminal history.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A sawed-off shotgun was found inside the house, officials said. (LUIS MEZA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nelson said several people were called out of the house during the service of the search warrant.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was some indication that the suspect that they were looking for was still inside, and because of his history and the fact they believed him to be armed, they called the special enforcement bureau,\u201d Nelson said.<\/p>\n

Nelson said the team spent hours trying to get the suspect to exit the house and made announcements on the ground and from the helicopter.<\/p>\n

\"During<\/a>
During the hours-long standoff, surrounding homes in the area were evacuated. (LUIS MEZA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThey introduced a diversionary device, a flashbang, in an effort to get him to exit the house. He still didn\u2019t,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cThey made more announcements and ultimately ended up introducing teargas into the house.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt some point, subsequent to that, a fire erupted,\u201d Nelson added.<\/p>\n

The fire was reported around 11:07 p.m. Thursday, according to Los Angeles County Fire Department Supervisor Michael Pittman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpecial weapons deputies entered the residence at approximately 11:45 p.m., put out the fire, and found the suspect deceased. The cause of death is unknown and will be determined by the medical examiner,\u201d sheriff’s officials said in a released statement.<\/p>\n

A sawed-off shotgun was found inside the house and a search for other weapons was being conducted Friday morning, according to the sheriff\u2019s press statement.<\/p>\n

During the hours-long standoff, surrounding homes in the area were evacuated. Residents were allowed to return to their homes around 1 a.m. Friday.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

[City News Service contributed to this report.]<\/em><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LANCASTER – A body believed to be that of a convicted felon who had refused to surrender to authorities was found just before midnight in a Lancaster house that caught fire after a SWAT team deployed a \u201cflashbang\u201d grenade and tear gas into the structure, authorities said. The body was found at the scene of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":60385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[719],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60384"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}