Long Beach police arrested a man carrying a knife Wednesday morning after a nearly hour-long standoff that shut down a busy stretch of Downtown.
The incident began around 10:30 a.m. when officers responded to the area near Fourth Street and Pine Avenue for a report of a person with a knife, according to Long Beach police.
When officers arrived, they spotted a man “with a visible knife on his person,” police said. He fled to the southwest corner of Fourth Street and The Promenade, where he sat down on a bench outside a T-Mobile store.
Long Beach resident Israel Padilla said he was nearby, waiting for a skate shop to open so he could get his skateboard regripped, when he saw a man run past and officers give chase.
Padilla said he decided to move across the street once he saw officers pull out their weapons.
Officers attempted to negotiate with the man, with weapons pointed at him while he sat on the bench. At one point, they offered him a bottle of water and a bag of Lay’s potato chips.
At the nearby Ross store, the doors were locked to prevent customers from potentially walking out into the police crossfire.
After about 45 minutes of the man refusing to surrender, police shot him with a taser along with a foam round and took him into custody.
The man was taken to a hospital for medical clearance before being booked into jail, police said.
Editor’s note: This story was updated with more details from police.