Michael Julio Duran held police at bay for six hours today, after reportedly making threats and wielding a martial arts weapon popularized by a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.
After hours of negotiations at the Olde Town Arvada apartment building, the 25-year-old surrendered about 6:30 p.m., police said.
Three nearby schools had been under a modified lockdown, only allowing children to leave with their parents, as SWAT teams surrounded the apartment building in the 5600 block of Olde Wadsworth Boulevard.
Police were called shortly after noon on a report that Duran had threatened an employee on a business beneath his apartment with a three-pronged knife called a Sai, which was made popular by the character Raphael in the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” cartoon.
“He was on his balcony, and she (the employee) was below. He’s armed with knives,” Susan Medina, spokeswoman for the Arvada Police Department, said during the standoff.
Police said Duran barricaded himself inside his second-floor apartment before they arrived. Negotiators eventually reached him by phone and talked to him until he gave up, according to a police statement.
Duran faces felony menacing and refusal to leave premises upon lawful order charges.
Nearby St. Anne, Arvada Middle and Lawrence Elementary schools kept children until they were released to their parents. Olde Wadsworth was closed temporarily between Grandview and West 57th avenues.
Anthony Bowe: 720-382-6774 or abowe@denverpost.com
