Local authorities on California murder suspect capture

AUSTIN, Texas - A murder suspect out of Los Angeles is in the Travis County Jail. He was arrested in Pflugerville over the weekend after a nearly six-hour standoff.

Now we're learning from authorities on how it came to an end. 

Cell phone video shows part of a nearly six-hour SWAT standoff in Pflugerville Saturday. Neighbors waking up in fear.

"I was a little bit scared...if maybe someone tried to shoot from inside to the cops or there may be a fight,” says Amat Maan, neighbor.

It ended with the arrest of 55-year-old Kevin Dickson wanted for murder. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department says he's accused of stabbing his ex-girlfriend there last week in a church parking lot. He fled the state hours later, ending up in Pflugerville. That's when the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force got the call.

"The first key was to establish surveillance surround the house; we would call out anybody and everybody in the house. We also evacuated other residents in the area as a precaution because we didn't know what Mr. Dickson was doing in there. He’s wanted for murder out of California, we don't know if he has weapons, we don't know what he's doing in there,” says Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Darren Sartin, Lone Star Fugitive Task Force

Authorities beleve the address in Pflugerville might have been to a family member or close associate to Dickson. After not responding to commands to surrender, task force members called in the Austin Police Department SWAT team.

"He refused for hours and eventually, they did make entry and were able to make the arrest,” says Sartin.
Dickson was not armed and booked into the Travis County Jail. Sartin says about 50 law enforcement personnel were on scene that day, hoping for the best-case scenario. 

"Communication is the key. With multiple agencies, we make sure we're all on the same radio frequency because we never want to get a law enforcement on law enforcement type situation. A command post is established, we have personnel from the task force in the command post with the SWAT personnel, that way everyone's on the same communication page so that there's not any unknowns out there,” says Sartin.

The Lone Star Fugitive Task Force says they were able to accomplish all of this with the help of other agencies, including the Austin Police Department SWAT team and the Travis County Sheriff’s Office. The suspect was booked in on the murder charge on Saturday. He’ll go through the judicial process, and then go through extradition to LA County.