Report details 29-hour standoff with police at motel

A newly released arrest report details a woman and a child’s ordeal when they were taken hostage during a lengthy police standoff at a motel in the southern Las Vegas Valley in May.

Antionio BarryEdwards, 24, was arrested following the 29-hour standoff at the Highland Inn Motel, 8025 Dean Martin Drive. A Las Vegas police report for BarryEdwards said the episode started about 10:30 a.m. May 26 when an officer investigating stolen vehicles in the area came across BarryEdwards standing next to a stolen sport utility vehicle and a stolen motorcycle.

When the officer attempted to arrest BarryEdwards, police said, the men struggled and a fight ensued.

“During the fight, Antionio reaches for the inside of his vest in (an) attempt to retrieve his firearm,” police said. “(The officer) continues to fight with Antionio over the firearm.”

The officer then separated himself from BarryEdwards and reached for his own weapon. Police said BarryEdwards fled into a room of the motel and shut the door.

As officers surrounded the motel, police said, BarryEdwards used a saw to cut a hole through a wall in the room. He then crawled through the hole into an adjacent motel room where a woman and a 4-year-old child were napping. Police said the woman and child fled into a bathroom, where they cowered in the bathtub as BarryEdwards talked with police negotiators over the phone.

BarryEdwards “tells (her) that he is not here to hurt her, and that he cannot spend the rest of his life in prison,” police said, adding the woman hears “a single gunshot, which sounded like it came from inside their unit.”

Two hours after the standoff started, police said, the child was allowed to crawl through the hole in the wall to awaiting SWAT team officers. The woman was released some 21 hours later.

BarryEdwards fired five gunshots at SWAT officers about an hour after the woman was released, police said.

“Thankfully no officers were struck by gunfire,” police said.

BarryEdwards was taken into custody at 3:07 p.m. May 27. The details of how he was apprehended were blacked out in his arrest report.

He is charged with at least 14 felonies, including assault on a protected person with a deadly weapon and second-degree kidnapping, court records show. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 16.

Contact Glenn Puit by email at gpuit@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.