10-Year-Old Calls 911 After Seeing Man Point Gun At Mother, Gets Rescued

A 911 call made by a child from inside a Houston apartment has led to the police bringing a mother and two kids safely out from the residence before an hours-long SWAT standoff.

Houston police were informed about a disturbance with weapons at the Oxford Place Apartments in the 600 block of Berry Road near Irvington at around 3 a.m. Sunday. The call was made by a 10-year-old child from one of the apartments, reported Click2Houston.

The child witnessed a verbal dispute going on between the mother and her boyfriend and saw the suspect pointing a gun at the mother's head, according to Houston Police Department Commander Megan Howard.

It was "clearly a scary situation for them to call on behalf of their parents," the officer said about the child's phone call.

Once first responders arrived at the house, they noticed the woman was hesitant to let them inside the apartment. Authorities could tell something was wrong based on her behavior. But they eventually managed to bring the mother and two children safely out of the property.

They then tried to confront the mother's boyfriend but found that he was armed. He barricaded himself inside and refused to pay heed to the police's orders. Authorities also learned that he was wanted on multiple warrants, including assault with a deadly weapon.

Officers called in SWAT and hostage investigators, and what followed was a standoff that went on for around four hours. Eventually, the suspect surrendered. According to the police, it was because the man's coworker convinced him to do so.

The coworker told ABC 13 about the conversation he had with the suspect.

"'I'm coming down the street. Go ahead and turn yourself in. Don't make them wait because they're probably going to kick in the door and it's going to get dangerous,'" the coworker recalled. "So I told him, 'Go ahead and turn yourself in. I'm a couple of blocks down the road. I'll see you when I get there.'"

Commander Howard revealed investigators later found how the man barricaded himself inside.

"What we found was that he had actually dug a hole into a wall into a neighboring unit," the commander said. "We don't know if he was trying to escape, to get past officers while we were there. While we were on scene, we could hear something going on inside, so it appears he may have been trying to burrow his way out of the apartment to escape."

No casualties or injuries were reported after the incident.

The armed man was arrested for previous incidents recorded against his name and is likely to face new charges in connection with Sunday's incident.