A three-hour standoff with a police SWAT team at a South Kelso apartment on Walnut Street ended peacefully Friday night with the surrender and arrest of a 38-year-old Longview-area transient.

Dwight James Elkins was taken into custody just before 5 p.m. Friday on a Cowlitz County Superior Court warrant for burglary after police negotiators convinced him to turn himself in, Kelso Police Capt. Darr Kirk said.

Police closed off about three city blocks and evacuated about six apartments in the area starting at 1:45 p.m. At least six armed SWAT team members surrounded the apartment complex. Police took extra precaution because Elkins had been arrested in January for unlawful possession of a firearm, and he had indicated Friday afternoon that he did not want to go back to jail, Kirk said.

“We didn’t want to take any chances,” Kirk said. “He’s got an extensive history.”

In addition to the January arrest, Elkins pleaded guilty in January 2004 to breaking into a building on the 1400 block of Commerce Avenue, according to Daily News archives. At the time, he was already in prison for separate cases in Lewis and Snohomish counties.

The neighborhood was swarming with law enforcement from Longview, Kelso and Cowlitz County, who make up the Lower Columbia SWAT team. At least five SWAT members clad in green and carrying high-powered rifles surrounded the apartment complex.

A woman fled the apartment where Elkins was holed up immediately after police arrived. She was not arrested, Kirk said.

Police first used a bullhorn in an attempt to convince Elkins to come out, but got no response. After about an hour, two SWAT members tossed a phone connected to an electrical wire into the apartment to make contact with Elkins.

Another hour later, a negotiator convinced Elkins to turn himself in. He was booked into Cowlitz County jail on the Superior Court warrant.

“Awesome. They did a great job,” Kirk said.

Elkins did not live in the apartment complex, but neighbors said he had come to visit over the past few months.

Elkins was not carrying a weapon when he was arrested, and police did not search the apartment immediately afterward, Kirk said.

About 50 people gathered in nearby front yards to watch the standoff. Some were waiting to get into their homes.

Shawnna Youngblut was at home in the apartment next to Elkins with her two infant children when police told her to evacuate. She was unable to retrieve asthma medicine her daughter needed that afternoon before she was forced to leave, so two SWAT members fetched the medicine for her in the middle of the standoff.

Youngblut had seen and talked to Elkins in the neighborhood before, and she thought he was trouble, she said.

“My dog don’t like him. My dog bit him twice,” Youngblut said.

John and Linda Crossland were at home with their son in the apartment when they were told they needed to leave. Linda Crossland, who is undergoing chemotherapy treatment that’s forced her to shave off her hair, left her wig inside, not expecting she’d be outside all afternoon.

The Crosslands, retirees who have lived in their apartment for 21 years, say the neighborhood is normally quite and peaceful and a nice place to live.

“We never have problems here,” Linda Crossland said.

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