SWAT Team Used to Arrest Bellmead Man
Central Texas authorities were forced to use a SWAT team to apprehend a man wanted for online solicitation of a minor.
According to a report from our news partners at KWTX, Justin Roper, 30, tried to evade arrest by fortifying himself inside an acquaintance's home in Bellmead.
Roper had been explicitly communicating with someone he believed to be a 16-year-old girl in Woodway for several weeks.
“We have people that monitor these accounts, and once these people start making the communications with them that’s sexual in manner, then they’ve committed the crime, and we follow up with it,” Woodway PSD Chief Bret Crook said.
Roper would not agree to meet "the minor" in Woodway, and instead gave an address in Bellmead at which to meet him. Even though Roper did not leave Bellmead and enter Woodway, the crime had already been committed by engaging in the explicit messages with someone he believed to be a minor.
The situation is similar to those caught in prostitution stings. Even if the individual does not leave their vehicle, once they have agreed to pay for sexual services, a crime has been committed.
Roper, who was on parole, was greeted by Woodway officers and ran to a friend's relative's home to hide.
“Then we activated our SWAT team and just waited for him to come out, tried to communicate with him, he didn’t want to communicate so we introduced gas into the house," said Crook.
Despite Roper's attempt to hide in the attic, officials were able to successfully arrest him.
“You’d think people would be smarter than this," said Crook. “We really aren’t looking for these, they’re coming to us.”
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