HOLLAND (WHTC-AM/FM) — What was intended as a high-risk search warrant attempt turned into an hours-long standoff that ended peacefully just before 9 p.m. Friday, Dec. 13, 2019.
Ottawa County Sheriff’s deputies, detectives and Holland police officers worked together Friday afternoon through the evening on the case, which the Sheriff’s authorities initiated.
A man, whose age police officials estimated at “about 19 or 20” was taken into custody. He went by AMR Ambulance to Holland Hospital for a medical evaluation, according to Sheriff’s Detective Sgt. Jeremy Baum, and may not be considered a suspect.
Holland Capt. Keith Mulder said the city and county tactical departments worked “very well together, as they always do.” They met up on the 1000 block of 12th Street early Friday afternoon, then headed into the Stratford apartment complex, on 16th Street, just east of Waverly Avenue.
Th intention was to execute what Ottawa County Sheriff’s Capt. Mark Bennett called “a high-risk search warrant.”
Sgt. Baum said the Stratford Way residents were “very cooperative,” and that county and city officers worked together. But clearing the building to do the search took time, “because there was somebody that didn’t want to get out of there.”
The investigation into the drive-by shootings “is still really on-going,” Baum said, but police are hoping to wrap it up as soon as possible.
Baum told a resident who asked about the investigation that it was slow moving because police “wanted to make sure everybody was safe — the officers and the people.”
A woman, who declined to share her name, but who lives in an apartment on the street where the search took place, said it’s sad that the shootings have been happening, blaming it on the on-going dispute that led to the shooting of 14-year-old Troy “T.J.” Wells Jr. last February, and to subsequent shootings.
She called the sitatuion “really sad,” adding that her kids’ school, Holland Heights, went into lockdown at the end of the school day.
A 17-year-old boy lingering near the blockade earlier in the evening had hoped to get to his grandmother’s apartment, he said, after she called and told him about hte police incident. He was turned away by police, but told WHTC his grandmother was OK. He also declined to give his name.
