SWAT Team Arrests a Suspected Rapist who Refused to Surrender for 6 Hours
Photo: SWAT in action
VALLEJO — A police SWAT team arrested a man on suspicion of kidnapping and raping a woman at gunpoint. Officers surrounded a residence and located the suspect, but he refused to surrender for nearly six hours.
Authorities received a call from a woman in the middle of the afternoon on September 7. She reported that she had been kidnapped and raped inside a home located on Willow Street.
Officers responded to the 200 block of Willow Street shortly after 2:15 p.m. They cordoned off the neighborhood of single-family homes until after 8 p.m.
Repeated efforts to contact the suspect outside the home were ignored. As more officers were arriving on the scene, the suspect attempted to flee.
A brief foot chase ensued. Officers pursued the suspect into a backyard, where he ran inside of a storage shed. He apparently thought he could hide, but officers saw him go inside. However, once he was holed up inside the shed, he repeatedly refused to come outside.
As a precaution, police advised neighbors living on Willow Street and nearby Holly Street to evacuate from the area. Those reluctant to leave were advised to shelter in place instead.
Patience paid off. The standoff finally ended at about 8:10 p.m., when the man was taken into custody without further incident. The suspect was identified as 41-year-old Tynel Cole, a resident of Oakland.
Cole was booked into jail on September 8. His charges are forcible rape, and false imprisonment by violence.
An investigation of the incident remains open. Anyone with information can call Vallejo police Detective Craig Long at 707-648-4514.
