APD blocks off part of E 6th for several hours for SWAT call

AUSTIN, Texas - Police responded to a barricaded subject in East Austin, blocking off part of East 6th Street for almost seven hours Thursday.

The Austin Police Department (APD) said it tried to serve an aggravated robbery warrant in the 2000 block of East 6th St around 11:28 this morning. 

"A male subject with an aggravated robbery warrant that refused to come out when our organized crime division was attempting to serve that warrant," said Ofc. Jose Mendez. "The SWAT team was activated for that reason." 

Part of the street from Chicon Street to Robert T. Martinez Jr Street was shut down, so police could search a second-floor apartment in the Villas on East Sixth.

David Alba, who lives on the first floor, walked out to his balcony to see what was going on after he was woken up by the noise of smoke grenades.

"Further down I saw it was all barricaded and cops, and you know like an audience out there seeing what was going on," Alba said.

Alba and Mona Navarro were forced to wait and watch. "Wondering what was going on you know trying to see if they were going to bring somebody out," Navarro said. "They were blocking the street over there, the entrance over there." 

Police believed a 39-year-old man named Victor Rene Machado was inside, but after almost seven hours, he had not been found at that location.

Navarro said she had never experienced anything like this. "No, no, I mean there’s crazy things going on around here you know, people breaking in cars. People out there acting crazy, but nothing like this," she said.

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