Man arrested after hours-long standoff in southwest Houston

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- The police standoff with a suspect in southwest Houston is now over. Houston police have taken 31-year-old Shih En Chen into custody after they say he assaulted his father and barricaded himself inside a home for more than two hours this morning.

It all started at the Bellerive Condiminiums in the 7400 block of Bellerive near Fondren around 8:15am.

The father and son live together and when the father got home from work around 5am, he went inside the house and the son was acting in a threatening way, according to police.

HPD says the son is in a "bad mental state." When the father entered the house, he noticed that the back window and door were barricaded, but police are not saying how he barricaded the home. At that point, police say the man began beating his father with his hands.

Police say when the father saw a gun tucked in his son's pants, he ran out the front door and called police.

When police arrived, Chen began making threats to police through the front door and SWAT was called to the scene as a result.

Police tried to speak with the man with a loudspeaker and through the home's front door.

People in the apartments adjacent to the one involved in this standoff have evacuated the scene.

The man was arrested around 11:20am. He was loaded into an ambulance wearing handcuffs. It's unclear whether there are any injuries aside from the father's assault at this time.

After the standoff was over and Chen was arrested, his father spoke to us from the apartment where everything unfolded. He says his son is not well.

"He's just -- he's depressed," said Hando Chen. "He (does not) feel comfortable and is emotionally challenged."

Jason Turner lives upstairs and says he heard the father and son fighting. Turner says he didn't know Chen well but noticed he recently started throwing knives.

"He has wooden boards up outside and Army knives with blades on both sides," Turner said.

Police knew about Chen's new hobby as well. An HPD spokesperson tells Channel 13 they took that into account during the standoff.

"He had a history of practicing with those knives as throwing weapons," said Keese Smith with HPD.