San Jose Police officers responded to calls of a possible armed suspect near South Eighth and San Fernando Streets at approximately 6 p.m. Monday night.
As of press time, the situation had not yet been resolved.
The police established a perimeter blocking off the 0-100 block of South Eighth Street, one block away from the San Jose State campus.
As a helicopter circled above and SWAT teams with dogs moved into place around the residence, SJPD demanded over megaphone that the suspects leave the property.
At 11:10 p.m., police dogs were seen entering the house with officers.
Around midnight, SWAT with canine units began to surround the house and demanded two men inside named Xavier James and Anthony Hernandez surrender and come out of the house.
Attempts were being made to phone Hernandez inside the house, officers said.
Kinesiology senior Jhanelle Cervantes said SJPD officers were in her backyard and partially knocked down her fence to get to the house with the suspect in it.
Residents still inside their properties were also asked to leave with police escorts.
Residents Michelle Culich and her friend Cesar said they witnessed a suspect entering the house at 36 S. Eighth St. around 5:30 p.m. and came downstairs to see what was going on because they were suspicious of him.
Culich said another resident was familiar with the man, who had been a frequent trespasser on the property and kicked out several times.
The other resident told the person to leave, at which point, he began to force his way into the house by trying to break the door down, before leaving the front porch, Culich said.
Culich said she and her friend went around to close the side gate of the house and saw it was ajar and the person was inside the backyard.
“That’s when all hell totally broke loose,” Culich said.
The person began to beat Culich’s friend in front of her, she said. Culich said she called the police immediately while the assault continued.
“Cesar’s grabbing everything he can to defend himself,” Culich said. “He grabbed the bird feeder, the gas lamp. He grabs it. He’s swinging it. The guy’s coming at him. Next thing you know, guy pulledout a gun.”
Cesar disarmed the person and threw the gun over an adjacent fence and the person pursued the weapon, Culich said.
The police then arrived. Culich said she and the other residents of the house evacuated with their hands up.
“While we’re okay now, the guy came back after he retrieved his gun and broke into the house,” Culich said.
Area resident Jennifer Decluette said she got off work around the time of the incident and came home to see the neighborhood taped off.
“When I parked [on the San Fernando side] this cop was walking down the street with a gun.”
Decluette said it’s “wild” living in this area.
“I can’t wait to move,” Decluette said.
Eighth Street resident David McCree said he was leaving his home to go get food when he saw a police officer in his back porch area. He said he was unsurprised.
“There’s always police around here,” he said.
