Local News

Police and medics prepare to place someone in an ambulance outside University Christian Church Tuesday during a standoff with a man who allegedly snatched a 4-day-old infant from the baby’s mother. The man is in custody and the child is safe. (Photo by Erika Schultz / The Seattle Times)

UPDATE AT 12:15 P.M.: Seattle police say the man is in custody and the child is safe.

ORIGINAL POST: A SWAT team and hostage negotiators are trying to talk to a man who allegedly knocked down a woman and snatched her infant just after 11 a.m. in Seattle’s University District.

Around 11:15 a.m., police received a 911 call about a man who is “very agitated” and has refused to return  the child, who is a few days to a month old, said Seattle police spokesman Mark Jamieson. He said officers don’t yet know the relationship between the man and the child’s mother, but said it is possibly a domestic-violence incident.

“He knocked down a woman, grabbed the child and is refusing to hand over the child,” Jamieson said.

The suspect is outside a church in the 4700 block of 15^th Avenue Northeast, he said. Jamieson couldn’t say whether the man is armed.

Police have notified Metro, which is rerouting buses around the scene. Officers have closed off 15^th Avenue Northeast between Northeast 47^th and 50^th Streets, Jamieson said.