Armed man takes hostages inside South Seattle hair salon

SEATTLE — A 44-year-old California man was arrested for taking hostages inside a South Seattle business Saturday morning.

On Saturday, June 29 at 10:49 a.m., patrol officers with the Seattle Police Department (SPD) responded to the 8400 block of Rainier Avenue South and found a masked man inside a hair salon, armed with a gun and holding hostages.

According to officers, they figured out that the suspect the suspect had driven up to Washington from California to confront his ex-girlfriend for leaving him some months ago. He took one of the hostage’s phones as she was asking for help, telling her and the other hostages that he was going to kill everyone if they called the police.

Police arrived and confronted the suspect, safely negotiating his surrender and taking him into custody with a handgun seized as evidence. None of the victims were harmed.

Detectives with the SPD Homicide & Assault Unit are investigating this case, and the man was booked into King County Jail for charges of robbery, harassment, kidnapping, unlawful possession of a firearm, and multiple counts of assault and unlawful imprisonment.

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