Heavy police presence at Bellingham apartments as authorities make arrest after standoff
A standoff between police and an assault suspect near Studio Lane in Bellingham lasted around three hours Monday.
Jessica Lynn Whitis, 33, was first reported to law enforcement for attacking a man with a baseball bat. The man told police he was attacked outside his apartment complex by Whitis. She then allegedly said she was going to get a knife from her nearby apartment. While Whitis was gone, the man fled the area on a bicycle. The man showed injuries consistent with being hit by a baseball bat, Megan Peters told The Bellingham Herald.
Officers arrived on scene and attempted to contact Whitis in her apartment but she barricaded herself inside and threatened to harm the officers. Crisis negotiators were called to the scene while a search warrant was obtained to extract her if she continued to disobey commands.
BPD SWAT and the armored vehicle Rescue 2 arrived on scene. Officers used chemical munitions on the apartment when crisis negotiators could not talk Whitis into coming out of the apartment.
Whitis remained inside the apartment until around 1:30 p.m., when the SWAT team entered the apartment and took her into custody.
She was taken to the hospital to be cleared by medical staff before being booked into Whatcom County Jail at 2:14 p.m. She was arrested on suspicion of assault second degree (class B felony) and felony harassment (class C felony).
