WATSONVILLE—Watsonville Police shut down a portion of Lake Village Avenue off Tuttle Avenue for nearly two hours as they served a weapons search warrant in the normally sleepy, senior-heavy neighborhood.
Roughly two dozen police officers surrounded a house on the 800 block of Lake Village Avenue around 11am, shutting down the area with multiple WPD patrol cars and a BearCat armored vehicle and calling for the residents to come out.
According to Watsonville Police spokeswoman Michelle Pulido, the Special Response Team served the search warrant at the residence of a suspect recently arrested for a domestic altercation involving a firearm.
Officers were specifically looking for several firearms they believed the suspect had access to, Pulido said.
Officers did not locate any firearms, Pulido said.
Three family members, who live with the suspect, were arrested following the search warrant service.
“For nearly two hours, we attempted to convince these three individuals to exit the home, but they simply refused,” Pulido said. “They eventually walked out of the home, where they were arrested and later cited and released for obstructing and delaying the investigation.”
WPD requested help from Santa Cruz Police Department’s Emergency Services Unit and their armored vehicle to assist in the incident.
The shelter-in-place order issued in the neighborhood was lifted shortly before 1:30pm.
Several residents were watching the situation unfold from their front lawns and doorways in what they called a “very, very quiet neighborhood.”
“I’ve never seen anything like this here,” said one person who did not want to be named.
Editor’s note: Managing Editor Tony Nuñez contributed to this report.
