Gunmen Sought After Nordstrom Rack Standoff
Source: KTLA
WESTCHESTER, Calif. (KTLA) — Police are searching for two gunmen after a hostage situation at a Nordstrom Rack in Westchester. It all began around 10 p.m. Thursday at the store at the Promenade at Howard Hughes Center, near the 405 Freeway.
Police got a 911 call from a man reporting that his wife or girlfriend, who works at the store, had called him saying two men with guns were inside. When police arrived at the scene, they saw at least two suspects and a woman who was being held hostage.
SWAT officers were able to make entry into the Nordstrom Rack around 2 a.m. and found 14 people who were hiding inside. Several of them were in a locked storage room, and others were found in a bathroom, according to LAPD Lt. Andy Neiman.
“At this time, our belief is that the ones who were in the storage room were forced in there by the suspects,” Neiman said. “The individuals in the bathroom may have taken refuge when they saw what was transpiring and hid in there.”
Read more: http://ktla.com/2013/01/11/suspects-sought-after-nordstrom-rack-standoff
Note the Republican on the banner in the background of the theater.
Gunmen Escape After a Terrifying, ‘Ugly’ Hostage Situation Unfolded Last Night at a Los Angeles Mall
Two gunmen who took a woman hostage at a Los Angeles mall last night have apparently escaped after an overnight standoff that involved the LAPD SWAT team locking down the mall and holding around 200 moviegoers in theaters until nearly 3 a.m. Fourteen people who were trapped in the Nordstrom Rack where the hostage was taken have been found safe (no word on whether the hostage is among them); KTLA reports that the LAPD is saying the suspects are still at large.
The standoff began inside the Nordstrom Rack at the Promenade at Howard Hughes Centerr, in Westchester, at around 11:20 p.m. on Thursday night when two armed men were said to have taken one woman hostage, possibly at the end of a police pursuit following a robber. Since the mall was closed, the only civilians left in the complex were all seeing movies at the Rave theater one floor above the Nordstrom, and arriving officers quickly locked it down.
http://gawker.com/5975108/gunmen-escape-after-a-terrifying-ugly-hostage-situation-unfolded-last-night-at-a-los-angeles-mall
