(November 1, 4:45 PM) The Village Apartments in the 3600 block of Roosevelt St. are currently closed by Carlsbad Police as a SWAT operation is conducted.
According to Carlsbad Police, a car matching the description of one used in several armed robberies today (including two banks) was followed to the tiki-themed apartment complex. Two people are currently in custody (one a white male in his late 50s with long gray hair and a woman) and a SWAT team is preparing to sweep the complex.
Village Apartment residents are being told that they could be barred from returning to their homes for up to an hour, maybe two. Carlsbad Police are on the scene as well as an field evidence technician from the Oceanside Police Department. Earlier seven Carlsbad Police Cars, two Oceanside Police Units, one City truck, and the San Diego County Sheriff’s Helicopter were on the scene.
The San Diego Union-Tribune is now reporting that the man arrested identified himself as “the Geezer Bandit”.
The arrest followed a short standoff with the Carlsbad police SWAT team on Village Drive near Roosevelt Street, said Carlsbad police Lt. Bruce May. Another person also was arrested. . . May said the SWAT incident followed the robbery in Oceanside and two robberies in Carlsbad — one at a medical facility and one at a bank. He said witnesses wrote down a license plate number and a vehicle description.
One resident of the Village Apartments confirmed that one suspect (the man with long gray hair) “is one of my neighbors. Yeah, he lives in the complex.”
According to Carlsbad Police Lt. Kelly Cain, the suspect attempted to rob a medical facility on El Camino Real in Carlsbad, but was told they had no cash. Minutes later a “unsuccessful robbery” was attempted at the Carlsbad Bank of America on El Camino Real, and finally the Wells Fargo Bank on Vista Way in Oceanside was robbed.
“The license plate from the Oceanside robbery comes back to this address,” Cain said at the scene. “Officers set up and saw a male adult pull up, exit the vehicle, enter the house. Officers surrounded the house. He came out the back door about 30 minutes later. A woman also exited the house and both were detained for investigation. We believe we have reasonable cause to hold both of them.”
Cain said it did not appear that the woman being held was involved with the robberies themselves.
By 6:15 PM residents were still being kept from their homes while the Carlsbad Police department waited for a search warrant. Cain said depending on how the search goes The Village Apartments residents could be back in their homes within by 7 or 8 PM.
Follow the jump for more photos from this afternoon’s scene.
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TK Arnold: Sense And Sensibility
by The Editors on November 8, 2010
On a national level, the 2010 elections will go down in history as a populist revolt against big government. But in three North County cities, the year will be remembered as the one in which voters really, truly paid attention.
To their credit, voters in Carlsbad, Oceanside and Encinitas studied the issues, weighed the pros and cons of each side, and made informed decisions, unswayed by who had the most, and prettiest, campaign signs and mailers.
Call it the election of sense and sensibility.
In the Carlsbad mayor’s race, victor Matt Hall was seriously outgunned by fellow Councilman Keith Blackburn in both signs and mailers, thanks in large part of the police and fire unions, which spent thousands of dollars to protect their inflated pensions. The Friday before the election alone, I received no fewer than five Blackburn mailers, including one, sent by the Carlsbad Police Officers’ Association, that hit a new low in sleaziness. Under the headline, “Matt Hall neglected our families’ safety,” the cops blasted Hall for “talking to reporters” after the Kelly School shootings, while praising Blackburn for “humbling” donning his police uniform and helping out behind the scenes.
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