Vancouver police: Standoff ends with no evidence of crime

Detectives are investigating whether false reporting charges are appropriate after a woman called 911 to report a man had threatened her and two others with a knife, prompting heavy police response to an apartment complex in Vancouver’s Fourth Plain Village neighborhood Saturday morning.

Police swarmed the Cedar Lanes Apartments, 3205 E. 33rd St., just before 9 a.m. after a woman called 911 and told dispatchers that a man staying in the apartment threatened her and others with a knife, Vancouver Police Department spokeswoman Kim Kapp said.

When responding officers arrived, a woman exited the apartment, but police were told that the suspect remained inside with two other people, a male and a female, all of whom know each other, Kapp said.

The people who were supposedly inside did not come out and a standoff ensued, with police treating the incident as a potential hostage situation. Nearby residents were evacuated and those trying to enter the property were turned away for more than three hours.

Members of the Southwest Washington Regional SWAT team responded and firefighter and medical personnel staged nearby the scene, which is just south of Burnt Bridge Creek and west of Bagley Community Park.

By 1:15 p.m., another woman inside the residence came outside and gave officers permission to go inside the apartment. When they searched, they didn’t find anyone else in the apartment nor any evidence that a crime occurred. Thankfully, Kapp said, no one was injured.

“We cannot find any evidence that any of this occurred,” she said.

Detectives are now working to determine whether false reporting charges are appropriate, Kapp said.