NEW ORLEANS — SWAT teams have responded to the Trident Inn and Suites in New Orleans East after a man armed with several weapons barricaded himself inside of a room.
NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson said the man, identified as 35-year-old Charles Mangrum, is a sex offender and a parole violator.
Ferguson said that police and U.S. Marshals were out at the Trident, 12340 I-10 Service Rd., to check on the status of a sexual offender. He said that Mangrum saw the officers and barricaded himself inside the hotel. He said someone else was in the room with him.
"This individual is armed with several weapons," said Ferguson. "He is accompanied by someone else. Not sure if that person is being held against their will."
The second person, a female, who was in the room with Mangrum, got out of the room late Tuesday afternoon when police raised a ladder to a second-story window. Officers do not know her involvement or whether she is injured or also a suspect.
Police have the area cordoned off the area to traffic. They have evacuated the rooms around the one in which they say Mr. Mangrum is located and they have brought in the Red Cross to help accommodate people who were staying in those rooms.
"As always, we want everyone involved in this situation to safe. Not just our officers, but the offender as well."
This New Orleans Police Department also declared a SWAT roll a day prior to arrest a suspect in a series of Uptown robberies.
There is a warrant out for Mangrum in St. Tammany Parish.
