SWAT teams detain four people in south Modesto operation tied to robberies

A SWAT operation Thursday afternoon in south Modesto ended in four people detained in a robbery investigation, the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department reported.

It happened on the 1300 block of Inyo Avenue, where several officers waited with guns drawn for a few hours while two SWAT teams tried to contact people in a house.

Four people were detained, a Facebook post from the sheriff’s department said, but their names and charges were not released. Several weapons were recovered, the post said.

Modesto Police Department spokeswoman Sharon Bear said the operation started when a suspect ran from sheriff’s deputies. MPD and the SWAT team from the Ceres Police Department helped out.

The operation closed much of the block, but residents were allowed to remain in their homes. None of the neighbors questioned by The Modesto Bee knew who lived in the targeted house.

The sheriff’s post said the operation was “part of an ongoing investigation on recent robberies.” It did not indicate whether they included a home-invasion robbery reported at around 3:40 a.m. Thursday at a home on the 1300 block of Conrad Way, just west of Hanshaw Middle School.

The operation was carried out by the Sheriff’s Team Investigating Narcotics and Gangs (STING).

This story was originally published January 3, 2019 at 7:44 PM.