A North Carolina man was arrested Tuesday for holding multiple people hostage, including a child, at a bank in Arlington, Virginia.
Arlington County police said they charged 30-year-old Oscar Gonzalez Allarenja of Durham with robbery and abduction for the incident that set off a barricade situation in the busy Clarendon neighborhood.
Police said Mr. Allarenja entered the Wells Fargo bank around 3:10 p.m., grabbed an employee and suggested he was armed before demanding cash. A heavy police presence encircled the bank, where police said they “gave the suspect commands which he complied with and took him into custody without incident.”
Four adults and one child were inside the bank at the time of the holdup, which was resolved fast.
“The SWAT team rolled in, took positions all around the bank, and pretty quickly after that they were having some kind of conversation with (the suspect),” witness Max Pond told WTOP News. “You see all the squad cars pull in and start hopping out. … I’m saying 45 minutes in, they had the guy out front.”
Mr. Allarenja is being held without bond in Arlington.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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