Downtown standoff ends without incident

If you’re morning commute downtown was snarled, RTD has the reason why.

Richmond police spokesman James Mercante said a young man and young woman taken into custody at 7:27 a.m. inside the parking garage at the Crowne Plaza were being interviewed by detectives.

Mercante said it appeared the man had been holding the woman hostage before the surrender, but police were not immediately certain that was the case.

“Detectives are sorting all that out,” Mercante said.

The incident began at 5:18 a.m. when police were called to the parking deck of the hotel at Fifth and Canal streets for a report of a suspicious person, Mercante said.

Officers searching the parking garage found several cars that had been broken into, and they encountered a man on the first level who had one hand in a bag and appeared to be using the other hand to hold the woman as a shield against the officers, Mercante said.