TENSE MOMENTS: Police ready for standoff but discover empty house instead

Brownsville police responded to a report of shots fired and prepared for a standoff when they arrived Thursday at a home in the Southmost area.

But after spending more than two hours outside a residence at the 700 block of Milpa Verde and sending in the SWAT team, authorities found the house empty.

The tense situation began at 3:57 p.m. when police received a report of gunshots, spokesman Eddie Garcia said. Witnesses reported seeing several people running from the home on Milpa Verde, he said.

When police arrived, they found a vehicle in front of the home with windows shattered and several bullet holes visible. Fearing for the officers’ safety, authorities decided to deploy the department’s SWAT team, Garcia said.

"It was unknown if there was a victim at the location," he said.

Police blocked off about a block of Milpa Verde diverting a number of motorists who were trying to make their way home. Seventeen-year-old Anthony Quezada, a student at Lopez High School, was walking home when police turned him around.

"I live over there," Quezada said, pointing to area beyond where police were stationed.

A police officer was speaking toward the house with a megaphone saying, "This is the Brownsville Police Department. Get out of the house with your hands up in the air."

When there was no response, police tossed a telephone through a window – breaking the glass – in an effort to make contact with whoever might be inside.

Police continued through the megaphone: "If someone is inside the home, pick up the phone."

When there still was no response, they decided to enter the dwelling.

Three "flash bangs" were tossed inside the home at separate times before the SWAT team entered. They searched the house several times but did not find anyone inside, Garcia said.

The scene was then turned over to the investigation division since several bullet casings and bullet holes were found, Garcia said. Authorities will investigate the incident as an aggravated assault, he said.

This was the second time this year the SWAT team had been deployed to an incident in which they found no one inside a home.

In March, the bomb squad unit, two SWAT teams and nearly two dozen police officers and detectives responded to a call of a barricaded man with automatic weapons and explosives inside a home.

When police entered the home at the 3800 block of Coffeport Road, they found no one inside.