Police arrested four suspects in an early morning house raid on Jan. 22 directly across the street from Peter Kirk Elementary.

According to the Kirkland Police Lt. Nick Seibert, a patrol noticed a suspicious white van driving on the road around midnight. The vehicle then backed up to a residence on the 1300 block of Sixth Street and the occupants went inside. A records search revealed the license plates were stolen from a similar vehicle in Seattle and the van was stolen from the Brier area. Kirkland Police said around 5:30 a.m., two men emerged from the home and began moving property from the van to the house when arrests were made by several officers in bulletproof vests.

“In a situation like that, we have officers to handle any circumstance,” Seibert said.

Two women were also arrested inside the residence on outstanding misdemeanor warrants.

The four suspects were taken away and booked at the Kirkland Municipal Jail for possession of stolen property, but not before several parents and school children noticed the police presence near Peter Kirk Elementary School.

A resident of a nearby home said the home was a rental intermittently occupied by at least two men and a woman. She was irritated and frightened by the early morning screaming and said the police later told her the response and investigation was routine.

“We woke up to the screaming, the cops, the guns,” she said. “It was not routine.”

The resident, who declined to give her name, also alleged one of the arrested women asked for a ride last month to a Seattle health care facility for a pregnancy check-up. Because they were snowed-in and had never met before, the resident declined the request. She said Child Protective Service contacted her at a later date regarding an abandoned child.

“I just don’t trust the people that live in that house,” she said.

Julie Devine, another nearby resident and mother of a Peter Kirk student, said she later checked with the school secretary on the latest developments after noticing the commotion in the early morning hours.

“She said they were conducting a search (with a) warrant,” she said.

In addition to the stolen property, a small quantity of narcotics were found on one of the men. More suspected illegal substances were recovered from the residence after police received a search warrant to enter the home. The white van was later returned to the rightful owner and authorities informed the landlord regarding the mornings events. One of the arrested men had recently rented the residence.