Port St. Lucie police arrest man who barricaded himself in his home

PORT ST. LUCIE – A man who barricaded himself in his home for hours Thursday was found hiding under a bed by Port St. Lucie police officers who were there to arrest him on multiple counts of possession of child pornography, a police spokesman said.

Joshua Ross Valdes, 35, who resisted police orders to leave his home in the 3100 block of Southwest Watson Court for more than three hours, was eventually arrested “without incident” by members of the police Special Weapons and Tactical Team, Sergeant Dominick Mesiti said Friday.

“They found Mr. Valdes in one of the bedrooms, hiding under a bed in the corner of the room, wrapped in a blanket,” he said.

The residential area around Southwest Watson Court and the 800 block of Southwest Belmont Circle was closed to traffic for several hours on Thursday.

The incident began shortly before 5 p.m. when officers arrived at Valdes’ home to execute a search warrant and arrest him on 17 counts of possession of child pornography.

Mesiti said when Valdes refused to leave his home, a SWAT team activated a crisis negotiation team and drone units that tried to negotiate with him for nearly three and a half hours.

“At certain points during these negotiation attempts – where he still refused to communicate with us – our SWAT team used chemical agents in the house several times to get him to come out, but that was unsuccessful,” Mesiti said.

At around 8:30 p.m., SWAT officers decided to enter the house with a police dog to arrest Valdes, Mesiti said.

No weapons were found in the house, Mesiti said, and no officers were injured.

“He was unharmed. He was slightly exposed to chemical warfare agents, but the emergency services on site gave him the medical diagnosis,” said Mesiti.

Valdes is being held in the St. Lucie County Jail on $343,000 bail, records show. His bail also includes charges of possession of cocaine and possession of drug paraphernalia, which were seized during his arrest, Mesiti said.

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