Fugitive Captured At Hotel Tense Standoff Ends After Swat Team Breaks In

A fugitive wanted in up to 30 armed robberies of California banks was arrested after a tense standoff at a downtown Spokane hotel Sunday.

James Joseph Lizotte, armed with a handgun, held police and FBI agents at bay outside his 15th floor room at the DoubleTree Hotel for nine hours.

Spokane SWAT team members crashed down his door after negotiations collapsed, said Deputy Police Chief Chuck Bown.

Lizotte, 36, is being held in the Spokane County Jail on a federal bank robbery warrant from Sacramento and for allegedly assaulting his hotel roommate in a predawn scuffle.

Police are also investigating Lizotte for allegedly assaulting a DoubleTree security guard who checked on complaints of shouting and “banging” in Lizotte’s room, said hotel general manager Denny Fitzpatrick.

Lizotte tangled with the guard, who retreated when he saw Lizotte brandishing a gun, Fitzpatrick said. The battered roommate fled in his underwear.

Police arrived at about 6:30 a.m. and sealed off the DoubleTree’s top floor. Guests in seven or eight rooms were evacuated. Some spent the morning in terry cloth robes in the lobby, waiting to retrieve their clothes.

The FBI was called after police learned Lizotte’s identity, Bown said. Lizotte is suspected of robbing more than 30 banks in California in the last year.

The FBI said Lizotte is “the Cell Phone Bandit” who chats on a phone while waiting in bank lines, then threatens tellers with a handgun.

“He’s definitely one of our most prolific and most wanted,” FBI spokeswoman Laura Bosley told the Los Angeles Times in August. “He’s been lucky in that he’s gotten away with it so many times.”

Bown said a negotiator talked to Lizotte throughout the day. A police team camped on the roof monitored him with a camera attached to a boom that was lowered to the window of the $129-a-night room, which has a sweeping view of the Spokane River.

The talks collapsed about 3:30 p.m. At that point, the roof team lowered a phone to distract Lizotte. As he leaned out his window to grab the phone, two percussion grenades exploded and a SWAT team waiting in the hall swarmed the room. Lizotte’s gun was found on the bed.

No one was injured, but Lizotte seemed dazed as he was led through the hotel lobby in handcuffs to a police car.

Police planned to get a warrant Sunday to search the room. Lizotte is expected to appear in court on the assault charges and warrant violation today.

Local FBI supervising agent Egon Dezihan said Lizotte’s presence in Spokane was a surprise, and he didn’t know why the suspected “Cell Phone Bandit” had come north. “It’s a nice quiet town,” he said.

Lizotte, a hairdresser, was known to frequent gay dance clubs in Hollywood. He frequently changed his hair color, and often wore a baseball or floppy fishing hat during robberies, according to the FBI.

He was considered armed, dangerous and possibly suicidal.

The FBI released information about Lizotte’s sexual orientation “because it could aid in apprehending him,” Bosley told the Los Angeles Times.

Lizotte’s roommate received minor injuries that didn’t require hospitalization, Bown said. The roommate was the registered guest at the Doubletree, and gave police several names.

Hotel guests were not in jeopardy during the stand-off, Bown said.