Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor)POLICE are questioning a man after an 18-hour armed siege at a house in Castell de Ferro ended without any casualties.
GEO special branch officers had to use tear gas to arrest Francisco Antonio Martín Muñoz, who had earlier barricaded himself into the house in the Romeral district of the Costa Tropical town with a 38 calibre pistol.
The siege began shortly after midday on October 30 after police in Motril received a phone call telling them a man wanted in connection with a shooting incident in the port town was hiding inside a house in Castell de Ferro.
Eye witnesses claim as the police arrived to arrest Francisco Antonio Martín Muñoz, the 43-year-old fired three shots from a bedroom window of the house, warning the officers not to enter.
Martín Muñoz had been on the run since allegedly shooting his girlfriend in the arm in Motril on October 17.
The area was sealed off and two units of GEO police officers specialising in armed sieges were called from Málaga and Guadalajara, near Madrid.
A trained police negotiator was also called from Motril. According to witnesses, Martín Muñoz refused to enter any negotiations. He rejected all offers of food, only asking for sodium bicarbonate to ease stomach pains.
Martín Muñoz called out several times he would kill any officer who tried to enter the house. He also threatened to kill himself.
At 6.15am on October 31, police fired two canisters of teargas into a window at the front of the house and one through a window at the back.
Eight of the GEO officers assaulted the house, entering through the front and back doors. After an exchange of gunfire in which no-one was injured, Martín Muñoz was arrested and charged with attempted murder and resisting arrest.
He was due to appear in court in Motril on November 2.
