July 10, 2012 at 12:02 PM
UPDATE: Seattle standoff ends; child safe

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 15th 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 15th Avenue Northeast between Northeast 47th and 50th Streets, Jamieson said.
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| Topics: domestic violence, kidnapping, Seattle
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