A man wanted for felony charges was arrested on Monday after barricading himself inside a home in West Palm Beach for several hours, police said.
According to our affiliate WPTV, officers went to the Fairway Vista apartments on Brandywine Road to serve a warrant, but when officers arrived, James Gerald Parker, 49, refused to come out of his apartment.
Police told WPTV that Parker is a convicted felon who was wanted on four felony counts of sexual battery, felony battery, false imprisonment and stalking.
"He made it clear that he wasn't going to come out, and he didn't want to come out alive," West Palm Beach Police Department spokesman Mike Jachles said.
Get South Florida local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC South Florida newsletters.
Jachles said officers realized they had a safety issue, forcing authorities to order everyone in the apartment complex to stay inside.
"Once I got in the house, I could see through the back walkway where SWAT was coming through with the shields, and they must have sent a smoke bomb in there because it got all white," Carolyn Tucker, a resident of the neighborhood told WPTV. "That's when I thought it was over, and I'm looking at the cop that's sitting in the car. He said, 'No, no, go back in the house, go back in the house.'
After many hours of negotiations, Parker was finally arrested and taken into custody shortly after 7:00 p.m. after the SWAT team shot tear gas canisters inside the home.
Local
"There was nobody else in the apartment," Jachles said in the press conference. "There were no hostages. There were no rounds, no weapons, no shots fired."
Parker is now being held at the main Palm Beach County jail, per WPTV.
