Reader Gary Carman took this picture of Lincoln Ave. being blocked as deputies handle a potential hostage situation.
UPDATE, 4:30 PM: Talked to Lt. Joe Dempsey of Altadena Station, and here's the sketchy information so far (we have also changed the headline appropriately):
A female resident of Altadena was arrested by the Monterey Park police as a suspect in a bank robbery. The woman said that she had been coerced into it -- that her family was being held hostage back in Altadena. The rollout was to contain the home where the suspects were allegedly holding her family. As of 4:30 PM, the house was contained (i.e. nobody can go in or out) but not secured, and deputies were preparing to enter the house.
Reader reports say Lincoln Ave. is blocked going northbound just north of Mariposa. Devirian is blocked off at Lincoln Ave. Southbound Lincoln Ave. is blocked just north of Devirian. A resident of Devirian says that they were evacuated.
4:55 PM: PSN report on Monterey Park bank robbery is here.
5 PM: per scanner, house has been cleared.
UPDATE 5:10: Per Lt. Dempsey, K-9 and SWAT units cleared the house. The family had come out and "nobody was in distress," according to Dempsey. The investigation is ongoing by Monterey Park police, and, said Dempsey, "it doesn't appear there were any issues in Altadena."
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Previous timed entries below:
All scanner traffic, so info is unconfirmed.
3:10 PM: Sheriffs rolling out to the scene, including units from Temple City and chopper. Don't know the situation yet. Sheriff's station won't tell us. Monitoring the scanner.
3:40 PM: Streets are closed around a location on the 500 block of W. Terrace St. -- units are now rolling in from Santa Clarita.
3:42: per scanner so unconfirmed - looking for three suspects: one is male, white, 55, black hair brown eyes, crrying black handgun; second is male white, 5 foot 6; third is male, mid-30's, white or Asian, blond.
4:05 PM: They cleared the house, and everything seems to be breaking up. We'll let you know what happened!
4:25 OK, false alarm -- they're now moving in paramedics, and telling them to move to a place where they can leave "if we tell them to go," per scanner.
