Standoff ends in an arrest

Bryce Alderton

A man wanted by police for violating his parole was arrested following

a six-hour standoff with officers at a Huntington Beach apartment

complex.

Vincent Morro, 32, of Riverside was finally drawn out by a SWAT team

that fired tear gas inside the apartment and arrested him, police said.

But officers weren’t the only ones he kept waiting.

Students at nearby Sun View Elementary School were kept at the school

until their parents or legal guardians came to pick them up in a

procedure known as “lock-down mode,” said Principal Allan Pogrund.

Police went to an apartment in the Huntington Highlander complex on

Sher Lane shortly after noon on March 21 to look for Morro who is wanted

for violating his parole for prior drug convictions.

Morro, who police said was unarmed, apparently knew someone in the

complex, said Huntington Beach police Sgt. Gary Meza.

When officers knocked on the door of the second-story apartment, Morro

jumped out of the back window and ran into another apartment, Meza said.

Police tried calling Morro but received no answer. Morro fled out the

back door and broke into a third unoccupied apartment where he hid in a

bathroom, Meza said.

SWAT teams arrived shortly after 1:30 p.m. and tried to make contact

with Morro with no success, police said.

At 5:10 p.m. the SWAT team threw tear gas into the ground-story

apartment and waited for Morro to come out. When he didn’t officers

entered the apartment and found Morro in a bathroom, Meza said.

He was arrested and is in the custody of the California Department of

Corrections at the California Institute for Men in Chino awaiting a

parole hearing, said Russ Heimerich, spokesman for the department.

The elementary school lock-down was the second in a week at the

school, the principal said.

A bank robbery the week before also resulted in a brief lock-down

mode.

“We practice for these things,” Pogrund said. “We have phones in each

room so the teachers could call the parents at work or home. The

maintenance department made sure no child was walking home and the

superintendent was in contact with the school at all times.”

* BRYCE ALDERTON is the news assistant. He can be reached at (714)

965-7173 or by e-mail at bryce.alderton@latimes.com