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SWAT team rescues children out of home; armed man gets away

The hours-long standoff has forced some neighbors out of their homes.

SWAT teams converged on a DeKalb County neighborhood after reports of a man refusing to leave Friday evening. The standoff stretched into the early hours of Saturday morning.

Authorities said that the incident happened in the area of Waters Edge Drive and Wood Hollow Way east of Stone Mountain.

Police initially learned that three children were inside with the suspect and that he was armed. The children have since gotten out of the home but police said the suspect remains barricaded.

"Our SWAT team was able to enter the residence and successfully rescue three children from inside the location," Police Chief James Conroy said.

Conroy said the children were 17, 12 and 3-years-old and appeared to be unarmed. He said investigators are still working to determine the suspect's relationship with them.

A police spokesperson with county's Special Victims Unit, Detective Anthony Wills, stopped short of calling the children hostages long before they were released.

Hours after SWAT teams had secured the release of the children -- at about 5 a.m. Saturday -- they entered the home and discovered the structure was completely empty. The suspect had escaped at some point during the prior hours. 

Investigators took several hours to canvass the entire home and nearby area to ensure that the suspect was not close at hand before bringing their standoff and heightened state to a close. 

Officers were out in the neighborhood starting at about 5 p.m. and as a precaution had kept some residents from re-entering their homes.

As the standoff drifted into the colder evening hours, police were able to make accommodations for some of those residents. Wills said that they had set up warming stations and called in MARTA buses so that residents were not stranded in the elements during the ongoing situation.

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