Photo by William Camargo/Daily Titan
Updated (Oct. 6 at 8:12 p.m.)
Police arrested a wanted parolee Saturday following a standoff that lasted more than eight hours at a Ramada Hotel along Harbor Boulevard in Anaheim, said authorities.
Steven Fishel, 51, of Huntington Beach, was ultimately taken into custody about 6:45 p.m. and is expected to be booked on suspicion of violating his parole, as well as an assault with a deadly weapon that occurred in San Diego County in September, said Anaheim police Sgt. Bob Dunn.
Two women who were holed up with Fishel inside the hotel room at the Ramada, 2141 S. Harbor Blvd., were unharmed, he said. Though officials initially feared they may have been hostages, they appeared to have been in the room of their own accord.
Parole agents from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation requested help from Anaheim police about 10 a.m. “apprehending a parolee-at-large who was armed and dangerous,” Dunn said.
Though no weapon had been seen Saturday, Dunn said, authorities considered him potentially armed because of his criminal history and the San Diego County assault he is suspected of.
When officials approached the man at the hotel, he rushed into the room and made statements that he would not come out, Dunn said.
A SWAT team was called in as the standoff continued Saturday afternoon, he said. Police had been communicating with the suspect.
The entire hotel was evacuated, and the street in front of it shut down by police, according to a manager at the hotel who identified herself only as Melissa.
A hotel employee who asked not to be identified confirmed via text message during the standoff that the building had been emptied and said the man was barricaded inside a room on the second floor.
As the police negotiations continued Saturday afternoon, the employee said the scene had become calm.
The young woman who emerged from the room shortly before 5 p.m. appeared, “unhurt, just frightened,” the employee said. The second woman, the young woman’s mother, remained inside the hotel room until Fishel surrendered.
Shortly before 7 p.m., “(Fishel) came out of the room along with along with the female that was in there and surrendered without incident,” Dunn said.
Fishel was taken to a hospital to be examined before booking after complaining of a pre-existing medical condition, authorities said.
The mother and daughter had not been arrested late Saturday, however officials continued searching the hotel room, and the investigation was ongoing, Dunn said.
Traffic, which had been shut down between Orangewood Avenue and Wilken Way as the incident unfolded, was reopened shortly after the arrest, police said.
The relationship between Fishel and the women was not clear.
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