MIAMI BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - Police responded to a false alarm involving a robbery and hostage call on Miami Beach.
Miami Beach Police and SWAT members were dispatched to Boulevard Restaurant and Hotel, Thursday morning, on 740 Ocean Drive.
Officers armed with long guns descended on the tourist-filled street after bystanders heard screams coming from a second-story window.
“He heard her screaming, really yelling for help,” one bystander said, “and then when I talked to the guy, he sticks his head out the window and says, ‘Call the cops, call the cops because there’s guys with guns in here.'”
A waitress from the Starlite Cafe said she also heard the screams and went to check it out.
“This window, the second floor, the kid was here, and he heard the scream too, and he said call the police, somebody has a gun in the building,” Yndira Castellanos said.
Within minutes, uniformed officers and robbery detectives lined Ocean Drive with marked and unmarked vehicles before going inside the hotel.
Officers exited the hotel with a woman who was eventually released.
They arrested a man and later determined the scene was safe after reports of guns and a robbery were unfounded.
Officials said it was only a scare from somebody who vandalized a room at the hotel.
Police said 25-year-old Johnel Andino made the initial complaint that men were holding him hostage with guns.
Andino spent the night at the hotel doing drugs, police said, and a bathroom was found destroyed with his blood all over it.
Andino was charged with criminal mischief and disorderly conduct.
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