3-hour standoff in NLV ends peacefully

By Jeff Pope

Monday, April 27, 2009 | 8:10 p.m.

A nearly three-hour police standoff in North Las Vegas ended peacefully Monday after a 28-year-old man surrendered to Metro Police officers.

Police said Raul Floress-Villa forced his estranged girlfriend into a vehicle on North 21st Street, near Rancho High School, at about noon.

A witness supplied Metro officers with a license plate number, which police tracked to an apartment complex on the 2500 block of Bulloch, north of Carey Avenue, Officer Ramon Denby said.

Police set up around the apartment building and tried to contact the suspect using a bullhorn. A woman and her two children came out of the apartment but Floress-Villa, his girlfriend and their 1-year-old child remained inside, authorities said.

“He was refusing to talk to our officers, saying he was not going to come out and he was not going to talk,” Denby said.

Metro’s Special Weapons and Tactics team then responded to the scene.

“With these incidences we don’t want to take any chances with a 1-year-old infant in there,” Denby said.

The woman eventually came out, leaving Floress-Villa and the infant in the apartment, police said.

Denby said the standoff began about 3:45 p.m. and ended when Floress-Villa came out shortly after 6 p.m. Floress-Villa wasn't armed, Denby said, but police operated under the assumption that he had a weapon.

Police arrested Floress-Villa on charges of domestic violence, kidnapping and resisting arrest, all felonies. Records indicate this is his third arrest for domestic violence within seven years, which makes Monday's domestic violence charge a felony.

Police also booked him into the Clark County Detention Center on an outstanding warrant for possession of a stolen vehicle.

Police evacuated residents of the apartment complex to Quannah McCall Elementary School during the standoff. Residents have been allowed to return home, Denby said.

North Las Vegas and School District police officers assisted in closing roads and evacuating residents.