Assault rifle in my kitchen?

So, two dudes robbed a bank in South Lake Union, which is an area in Seattle. One was caught almost immediately and the second holed himself up in his apartment. Which just so happened to be in the building right behind our house. I was inside folding laundry and Rust was out back trying to figure out how to change his air filter when I heard a lot of "Get on the ground, get on the ground!" from out front.

Me, my roommate, Tai, and her boyfriend run to the front to see what's going on. We see some college kid get searched and let go by cops. The cops then start running around the other side of our house, they have guns drawn and my first thought it is "Shit! Brandon is back there!" I run around the side of the house and see him running to our basement door to lock it. Some cop with some huge assault rifle looking thing just told him to get inside and lock the doors. Which we do.

By now, the four of us are watching out the windows to see what's going on. Cops are all over our backyard and the alley there. They have a big blue house behind ours surrounded with these huge guns pointed at it. Soon, a huge armored vehicle arrives with SWAT members and more of them take up positions around the house.

One of the cops notices us and yells "how do you get in your house!?". We tell him, and three of them come around front. They post up in our second floor kitchen and one of them says "if he comes out of that house with guns blazing, will you shoot through the screen [of our window] or knock it out first?".

They stay upstairs for the next four hours watching the house. The one with the big gun is replaced halfway through and one of the cops leaves with him. Brandon asks one of the replacements if they are going to buy us pizza. They say they can't but are in good humor about it. I've long since checked our basement and no one was down there. Ironically, Rust was telling a passing cop outside that our basement door (which has access outside and inside our house) was open and unlocked when all this started. I came out of the basement right after he finishes telling the cop. Brandon freaks out that I went down there alone (it was the widest I've ever seen his eyes - if you look at his pictures, you'll see what I mean, lol). I respond with "I took a knife with me."

Tai, her boyfriend, and Brandon spent most of that time watching everyone and speculating on what's going on. I spend most of that time designing shoes on Nike's website. For the first two hours, Rust is on the phone with random friends and family members telling them the same story about what happened. He's really jittery and excited and scared all at the same time. The intersection outside our house is roped off and apparently Brooklyn (my street) from 52nd to 55th is unavailable. So, the roommates of mine who were at work couldn't come past the tape to get inside. One of them was outside for 2 hours able to see her house but unable to get inside it.

To be honest, it was annoying. Tuesday is my day off and here I am unable to leave my house and everyone around me is pumped about what's going on - maybe I'm just an attention whore and wanted people to talk to me. We're making dinner at around 5:30pm when the cops upstairs leave. They thank all of us and even the guys who were there first come back and ask if they broke anything and to also thank us for letting them use our house - which helped them gain huge respect points from me.

They eventually got the guy but I'm not sure how. I don't know if they had to go in or if he came out on his own. I wasn't paying attention anymore by that time.

I have to go outside that night with Rust to pick up the tools he had left out there and to shut the hood on his car because he's too afraid.

Brandon and Tai's photos and videos from their phones are on every single news station website. Here's a link to one of them that actually sites the two of them: http://www.seattlecrime.com/2010/02/09/swat-team-called-to-the-university-district

All of the pictures and videos are from looking out of our windows. If you check Rust's Facebook, he put up pictures of the cops actually inside our house.

I need to move out of the ghetto.