Sheriffs Shut Down Seventh

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Just in the last ten minutes Sherriffs deputies have shut down 7th street between Figueroa and Flower. Lots of transit cops and Metro personnel on scene.

No clue what’s going on, but my first guess is usually a suspicious package. They haven’t shut the street down to pedestrian traffic, though, and it’s unclear whether the station’s closed. Hopefully this’ll show up somewhere soon and we’ll find out what’s going on.

Update (4:30): Everything’s back to normal now. All police tape is gone.

Update (3:41): And just like that 7th is reopened from Fig to Flower. Perfect timing to not really affect the evening commute.

Update (3:35): CBS2 has a single sentence breaking story on their site: “A suspicious package is being investigated at the Metro Station at West Seventh Street and South Figueroa in downtown Los Angeles.” Doesn’t seem anyone else has a story up yet. The first posting of the story here was at 2:03pm.

Update (3:14): Bomb squad guy is all suited up.

Update (2:58): Bomb Squad just showed up.

Update (2:44): 7th is now closed from Hope.

Update (2:42): Still not much action. Who knew Metro had so many of their white “Transit Security” cars, though. One of the cars is a K9 unit. Still no bomb squad, unless they’re hidden in the alley by the Fine Arts Building.

Update (2:11): The yellow tape’s up around the 7th/Hope entrance to the subway, so definitely something underground. Metro’s ever-informative website says “There are no major incidents to report at this time.”

Update (2:05): Sidewalks are taped off now. I’m thinking we’ll see bomb squad show up any minute now.