SWAT search for robbery suspect leaves family displaced; barricaded man arrested

A family is looking for a temporary home after SWAT officers broke windows and used chemicals in their Fort Lauderdale apartment while searching for a robbery and battery suspect who was hiding in an apartment nearby.

The woman and her family whose apartment officers entered while searching for the suspect are now displaced, according to an online fundraiser she created on GoFundMe.

The Broward Sheriff ’s Office identified the suspect as Spinsir Easley, 27.

Officers knew Easley fled toward an apartment complex in the 800 block of Northwest 12th Avenue about 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, but they weren’t sure which apartment he was hiding in. Casey Liening, a spokesperson for Fort Lauderdale Police, said in a news release Thursday that the suspect’s last known address was Unit 2 in the complex.

The residents of Unit 1 were outside their apartment when the incident began, Liening said, and officers told them to go inside for their safety. The residents then noticed their door was “unexpectedly locked from the inside,” leading to the belief that the suspect may have been inside.

The Broward Sheriff ’s Office issued a warrant for Fort Lauderdale Police’s SWAT Team to enter both apartments. Crisis negotiators tried to talk with the suspect over a loudspeaker for hours, but he refused to come out, Liening said, and officers focused on the family’s apartment “based on the real-time information provided to our officers on scene.”

SWAT officers broke the unit’s windows and used chemicals inside before realizing the suspect was not inside, Liening said. They entered Unit 2 with a master key, found the suspect and took him into custody.

Fort Lauderdale Police did not identify Easley as the suspect in their release or the family, though Liening said the city has been in contact with them.

“Accommodations were made on their behalf last night and additional accommodations are in the process of being arranged,” Liening said. “We want to ensure our community this family will be taken care of until the City is able to make the necessary repairs and they can safely occupy their home once again.”

Trenise Thomas lives in the two-bedroom apartment with her mother and her three children, she wrote in the GoFundMe. She wrote that she and her family do not know where they will stay next.

Easley was being held in the Main Jail on charges of robbery without a firearm or weapon, battery on a person 65 years or older and giving false ownership information of a pawned item greater than $300, jail records show.