Armed man cuffed by police in dramatic Spotswood arrest

Heavily armed police have arrested a man armed with a gun after he barricaded himself inside a home in Melbourne’s inner south-west on Friday morning.

Special Operations Group police officers negotiated with the man at a large house on Hudsons Road, Spotswood, eventually arresting and frogmarching him to a police car about 10.20am.

Video from the scene shows a bald man with a forearm tattoo being detained by police on the pavement. Police zip-tied the man’s hands behind his back.

Officers from the Australian Border Force and from the dog squad were also present at the home.

A police spokesperson said: “The area is now being cleared and there is no ongoing risk to the community.”

Hudsons Road resident Rick said he heard police telling the man “be calm, just walk out, put your hands in the air”.

“They were on the megaphone, they said: ‘Your girlfriend is with the police, she’s safe and she wants to talk to you’,” Rick said. “So I think it was very well handled by police.”

He said there had been a similar incident on the street about a year ago, but that it was a generally quiet and uneventful neighbourhood. Another resident confirmed the property had been raided within the last 12 months.

“I actually saw unmarked police cars down this street last week,” the resident said. “They were here at night.”

Several neighbours said it wasn’t unusual to hear people coming and going from the corner property at all hours of the night. They said whoever lived there had recently upgraded the security equipment, including new cameras, and had lights on all night.

One neighbour said she heard police telling the man to leave any firearms in the house and to come out unarmed. “They were saying, ‘come out, we won’t hurt you’,” she said.

“He didn’t seem to put up a fight when he did come out. I heard him yell out that he wanted to speak to a solicitor.”

Throughout the morning, residents stood on the street watching as police continued to search through the property.

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