Neighbor live broadcasted apprehension of suspected murderer on Facebook
Once authorities learned that suspected murderer Juan Navarro Rios might be hiding out at an apartment complex in Georgetown, they called in the SWAT team to help apprehend him.
For about four hours SWAT tried to get Rios to surrender with no luck. During that time, another resident of the Parkview Apartments recorded the whole interaction on her cell phone.
Kenra Bennett had a perfect view from her balcony to see what was going on between the SWAT team and Rios.
So, when she started getting concerned text messages from her friends and family, she decided the best thing to do was post a live video on Facebook so everyone knew she was safe.
"This thing just escalated into something like way, way bigger than we had imagined," said Bennett's boyfriend Daniel Guevara.
It was Kenra Bennett's apartment complex in Georgetown that police found Rios hiding out.
"So until we saw the second SWAT team pull up we knew, 'Okay, there's something crazy going on,' and that's when I decided to live feed it because my family was calling, my friends, they were all freaking out," Bennett said.
Kenra said she and Guevara felt far enough away that they were not in any danger, but they were close enough to capture the whole thing and broadcast it on social media.
"It was crazy. We never experienced anything like that. I never expected that to happen either," Bennett said.
"I've never seen a SWAT team in action like that. It was like a small army right outside of our front door," added Guevara.
Kenra watched and listened as the SWAT team deployed flash bangs, a device used to stun a suspect using bright light and loud noise.
She saw all her neighbor's evacuate and heard the police try to coax a man suspected of murder and kidnapping out of a third floor apartment.
"They surrounded the whole apartment complex, called his name to come out I think for about a good 45 minutes until they decided to go in and try to get him out. And he actually tried to jump out the window, apparently, before they actually went inside of the apartment complex," said Bennett.
As Rios got more desperate to escape, his actions became more unpredictable.
"Two flash bangs went off and he actually caught the apartment on fire and barricaded himself going through the walls," Bennett said.
Until finally, Rios had nowhere left to turn. SWAT officers were able to take him into custody unharmed.
Kenra said she did have some critics of her decision to put the whole interaction up live on social media for thousands of viewers, but when a family member of one of Rios' alleged victims called her to thank her for doing so, it quelled all her fears.