5 p.m. update
COLUMBUS, Ind. — A police SWAT team standoff ended peacefully Wednesday with the arrest of a robbery suspect at a home at 13th and Pennsylvania streets.
Jacob Grissom, 29, of Columbus, surrendered at about 4 p.m. Wednesday after about a 1 and a half-hour standoff. He was wanted for allegedly assaulting and robbing a 28-year-old woman of cash Sunday at her downtown Columbus apartment, said Columbus Police Lt. Matt Myers.
Another woman, Tiffany Searcy, 27, of Columbus, also was arrested Wednesday at the house at 1305 Pennsylvania St. on a warrant for failure appear in court on a charge of leaving the scene of an accident.
The standoff prompted police to evacuate nearby homes and to reroute 15 school children who would have been dropped off at 13th and Pennsylvania streets back to their schools, where their parents had to pick them up, Myers said.
Grissom was a suspect in the alleged robbery Sunday but had left the woman’s apartment before officers arrived.
Columbus Police Chief Jason Maddix made finding Grissom a priority and assigned four officers solely to tracking him down Wednesday, Myers said.
Lt. Gary Moody, Sgt. Bill Skinner and Patrolmen Chris Clapp and Troy Love followed leads that took them as far as Decatur County before receiving information that he was at the home at 1305 Pennsylvania St.
When the officers arrived, the homeowner cooperated and acknowledged Grissom was in the house. The homeowner and two women who were inside left the house, but Searcy and Grissom stayed inside, Myers said.
Officers surrounded the house and called for the SWAT team and police negotiators as a precaution because they had received information that Grissom was known to carry weapons.
Grissom and Searcy surrendered after an officer commanded them to over a public-address speaker.
Myers said the community can expect a more aggressive approach to finding wanted suspects, especially in violent cases, with Maddix as police chief.
Maddix’s realignment of the department will provide more opportunities to send officers on manhunts like the one that led to Grissom on Wednesday, Myers said.
“We’re going to have the manpower to go out and solely look for these individuals,” Myers said. “It’s putting the criminals on notice.”
Original story
The city’s SWAT team is responding to standoff at 13th and Pennsylvania streets.
Columbus Police have surrounded a home near the intersection, where a man wanted in connection with an incident last week is believed to be staying.
The standoff began at about 2:45 p.m. and police are awaiting a warrant to enter the home.
Police say SWAT was called because the man is known to carry weapons and to be uncooperative.
As an added precaution, about 15 students returning from school to homes in the area were sent back to school where their parents can pick them up, according to police.
Police also are considering evacuating a home in the area.