After a 19-hour standoff with law enforcement, a man barricaded in an Austin apartment on Wednesday was found dead with “a self-inflicted gunshot wound” early Thursday, police said in a statement.
Late Wednesday afternoon, the FBI and Chicago police were negotiating with the man barricaded in an apartment on the 5400 block of Walton Street.
The incident started Aug. 9 around 7 a.m. after members of the Violent Crimes Task Force arrived at the address to arrest an alleged federal bank robbery suspect, the FBI said in a statement.
The Violent Crimes Task Force includes Chicago police, the FBI, state police and the Cook County Sheriff’s police.
The man allegedly resisted arrest and fired shots at police. No police officers were hurt. The man then barricaded himself in the first-floor apartment, police and neighbors said. Residents of other units in the building were evacuated and the man was alone, police confirmed.
As evening approached, negotiators from the FBI and Chicago police continued to negotiate with the man, asking him to surrender in what turned into a 19-hour standoff with police.
CPD Area Four detectives will conduct a death investigation, a police spokesman said.
Two men who live in the second-floor apartment of the building said law enforcement initially raided their apartment by mistake. The suspect they were looking for lives on the first floor of the building and one of the men matched his description, they were told.
The two men, Alfredo Ramirez and Jose Gonzalez, reported they were handcuffed and removed from their apartment until police realized they had the wrong suspect. They were later released and freely stood outside Pine Avenue United Church, 1015 N. Pine Ave., waiting to be able to get back into their apartment.
“I’m a victim of gun violence and I’m very traumatized and the police run into my house with guns drawn searching for the wrong person,” Alfredo Ramirez told Austin Weekly News.
Ramirez said he was shot in the abdomen some seven years ago at the intersection of Division and Rockwell, he said.
One of the men said he is considering suing the city. The roommate who allegedly resembled the suspect said he has spent time in prison but has “left that life.”
A police spokesperson was unable to confirm this information immediately.
Ramirez, a contractor, said he and his roommate Jose Gonzalez, a truck driver, missed work due to this incident. After their arrest and release, the two men were on the street waiting for the negotiations to end.
They were left without their phones and only wearing underwear until a neighbor provided clothes and shoes, Ramirez said.
