GUADALUPE COUNTY, Texas – A man was arrested Tuesday in Guadalupe County following a six-hour standoff with law enforcement.
According to a Guadalupe County Sheriff's Office news release, special agents with the Texas Attorney General's Office were serving a parole warrant on the man in the Geronimo area around 12 p.m. when he barricaded himself inside of a house and refused to come out.
A SWAT and hostage teams negotiated with the man for about six hours until they entered the residence and found the man hiding in the attic, the news release said.
Tammy Guerra, a neighbor, said she and others were caught off guard by the entire situation.
"We were terrified," Guerra said.
She said she first realized something was going on when she woke up and noticed her grandchildren were not home from school.
"They usually get off the bus about 3:45 p.m. every day," Guerra said. "When I woke up, there was no school bus. I was thinking it was too quiet. I see cops have the road blocked off and I checked my phone, which had no missed calls."
That's when she said she woke up her son.
"I asked, 'Where are the girls?' He started to panic. He had no calls on his phone from the school or nothing. So I went down to the end of the street to ask the officer about what is going on with the school bus, and she told me there was an active situation going on and they had to reroute all the school buses back to the school and put the kids on lockdown."
Guerra said she was frustrated because it wasn't until close to 5 p.m. that she got a voicemail.
"The voicemail said they have all the students at the junior high, and as soon as the situation was cleared, the buses would bring them back home," Guerra said. "Then at 5:10, we got a call saying that my son would have to come pick the children up because they had to let the bus drivers go."
She said she is happy the situation is over, but she hopes for more communication should a similar situation happen again.
"Better communication and more communication between the school and parents," Guerra said. "Better communication between the community altogether, really."
The Navarro Independent School District released a statement on its website and social media page, alerting parents about the situation.
The man was taken into custody without incident and will be taken to the Guadalupe County Adult Detention Center, where he will be charged with violating his parole, officials said.
