Yakima man surrenders as SWAT team moves in

YAKIMA, Wash. -- A 36-year-old Yakima man surrendered without incident about 3 p.m. Thursday after a SWAT team surrounded an apartment in the 1400 block of Ledwich Avenue.

Immigration and probation agents had contacted the man about 1:30 p.m. because he was wanted on a federal immigration charge, Yakima police Lt. Mike Merryman said.

He agreed to a search of his car, but then went back into the apartment where he had first been contacted, Merryman said. He barricaded the door and briefly refused to allow two adults to leave.

The Yakima police SWAT team was called out. Merryman said the first officers did not see any weapons on the man, but they did not know whether he had access to any inside the apartment.

The man eventually emerged from the house after police talked to him by phone.

A federal indictment issued this month accuses the man of illegally re-entering the United States after deportation.

A hearing had been scheduled for Thursday morning for a judge to consider the government’s request that the man be detained pending trial.