Bomb Squad Searches Laguna Hotel

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A robot and bomb squad prepare to enter Casa del Camino hotel.
A robot and bomb squad prepare to enter Casa del Camino hotel.

The sheriff’s SWAT team entered a Laguna Beach hotel Friday, March 11, where a guest had apparently barricaded himself inside a third-floor room, police said.

Earlier, firefighters evacuated the building after guests of the 36-room Casa del Camino complained of coughing and burning from a pepper-like spray about 6:30 a.m., said hotel owner Chris Keller.

No beach access today.
No beach access today.

One 57-year-old hotel guest from Gilroy told firefighters he wasn’t leaving the room, said Keller, who speculated that the guest may have eventually left with others.

The guest has since refused to answer phone calls to the room from police, said Sgt. Tim Kleiser. The guest, who was not further identified, has an active DUI warrant, Kleiser said.

Firefighters reported a different, strong perfume smell that seemed to emanate from the room of the man, whose eyes appeared watery, Kleiser said.

About noon, sheriff’s deputies wearing gas masks guided a robot into the hotel to obtain air samples from the hotel, Kleiser said.

Keller, on the scene to provide law enforcement authorities with a room key, said he was told the air samples were clear. “Apparently they get an instant reading,” he said.

A larger armed squad was seen reentering the hotel about 1 p.m., in an apparent effort to contact the guest who refused to exit. “They are taking their time going room to room,” Kleiser said.

Police activity in the 100-block of Cress Street thoroughly congested Coast Highway and complicated the expected arrival of former President George Bush, who was to stay in town while attending Nancy Reagan’s funeral, said Capt. Darin Lenyi. Lenyi speculated Bush would be relocated elsewhere. “We can’t have a president coming by an active scene,” he said.

Armed officers enter Casa del Camino to clear the building where a man is barricaded on the top floor.
Armed officers enter Casa del Camino to clear the building where a man is barricaded on the top floor.

 

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