"I came outside and there's a guy in full swat gear and he just uh, just very sternly and calmly told me to go back inside," said neighbor Trevor Cleveland.
The FBI raided the home on 37th Avenue near Portola Drive around 6 a.m. The home in the Live Oak neighborhood is just a few blocks from away from the ocean. People in the neighborhood were startled from their sleep when several explosions went off.
"One more went off - boom - like a big explosion and I said okay that's not gunshots, that's something else. So we went upstairs and went looking and saw the police were blocking off the street down there and I heard them telling one of the other neighbors the FBI was serving some kind of warrant," said neighbor Jim Crowley.
The Santa Cruz Sheriff's Department helped block off the street and said no shots were fired, but some non-lethal explosive devices, like flash bangs, were used to help in the raid. The FBI sorted through evidence -- including some gun boxes -- for several hours after the operation. While on the scene, the FBI wouldn't say what the raid was about, or how many people were arrested but they did make a statement.
"The FBI executed a Federal Search warrant this morning as part of an ongoing law enforcement investigation," said Lawrence Buckley, FBI Acting Assistant Special Agent in Charge.
The FBI said they arrested Angelo Sultano, a Santa Cruz resident. Someone close to the investigation is saying it's a weapons charge. Sultana will be making his first appearance in federal court in San Jose at 1 p.m.
