Apparent 'Hostage Situation' Ends On Lower East Side
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A tense standoff on the Lower East Side ended Wednesday afternoon.
Police were looking for James Sider at the Alfred E. Smith Houses on Madison Street on the Lower East Side. Sider, 31, is wanted for the 2010 shooting of a Pace University student.
Max Moreno, 21, was killed in that shooting after two men pushed their way into his off-campus apartment at 2 Gold St., police said. Police said Moreno had sold marijuana out of the apartment where he was killed.
Apparent 'Hostage Situation' Ends On Lower East Side
As police knocked on the door where they believed Sider was early Wednesday morning, the occupant refused to open the door.
It turns out the apartment was occupied by James Sider's brother, Christian, their mother, Cynthia, and three others.
"They wouldn't tell me what it was in reference to for, like, three hours so I wouldn't open the door," Cynthia Sider told WCBS 880's Peter Haskell.
Apparent 'Hostage Situation' Ends On Lower East Side
"I'm not a liar, which I kept telling them. There's nobody in here. And then to go to that extent with shields and guns," Sider told Haskell.
After four hours, she relented and let them in. Police identified Christian Sider within, but James Sider was never inside.
"We didn't know and the people behind the door were not informing us," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.
"If someone we believe is in the apartment we do everything we can to get that individual to come out, so this was an example," Kelly said.
There were no injuries but Cynthia Sider's door was damaged, Haskell reported.
Police are still continuing to look for James Sider. He is said to be the third person wanted in the Moreno shooting, CBS 2's John Slattery reported. The gunman was convicted and a second suspect is awaiting trial, Slattery reported.
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