Loud parties, visitors coming and going at all hours — residents of a once-quiet east London street say everything changed this month, after a group of young men moved into a modest bungalow where an elderly couple had lived.

Neighbours thought it couldn’t get any worse, after an Easter weekend brawl drew police and paramedics to the once-quiet street.

They were wrong.

An armed and dangerous suspect is now on the lam, wanted by police after the gunpoint kidnapping of a man from the house who was driven to a native community southwest of London — where heavily-armed OPP descended, even calling in a chopper — before the suspect slipped away.

Tight-lipped police wouldn’t comment on unconfirmed reports the victim was doused in lighter fluid, saying the investigation continues.

Residence at 442 Saul Street in London. (MORRIS LAMONT, The London Free Press)

Wanted is 29-year-old Marlon Antone, who was already the subject of an outstanding warrant on suspicion of violent offences.

Antone is a rap artist who goes by the stage name Da Phats, according to his Facebook page, an account that was updated multiple times a day until it suddenly went silent Wednesday.

A warrant was issued last week for Antone after he failed to show up in court, on other violent charges against him.

“He’s considered armed and dangerous,” London police Const. Sandasha Bough said Thursday, warning he should not be approached.

While much about Wednesday’s dramatics remains unclear, what’s known is that city police say they were alerted to a home invasion about 11:15 p.m. at a Saul Street home where a man was forced from the residence and into a vehicle that took off before police got there.

An officer spotted the vehicle nearby and tried to pull it over, but the driver didn’t stop.

The police pursuit was called off for safety concerns, Bough said.

The vehicle, a burgundy Ford Focus, left London and was driven to the Oneida Nation of the Thames, about 20 kilometres southwest of the city, where it was seen on River Road between Ballpark and Walker roads.

The OPP sent in more than a dozen officers, about 15 police vehicles and a helicopter to search for the suspect.

The victim, whom police say knows his abductor, was later found and taken to hospital with minor injuries.

“This was not a random incident,” Bough said.

Officers scoured nearby fields and woodlots with a police dog, but came up empty-handed and called off the operation late Wednesday.

The OPP were no longer on the scene Thursday, said Middlesex OPP Const. Liz Melvin. She wouldn’t reveal any more information.

London police on Thursday identified the suspect as Antone, whose outstanding arrest warrant came after he failed to show up in court on charges of assault causing bodily harm and forcible confinement, stemming from an incident Sept. 13, 2016.

Marlon Antone, 29 (Supplied photo)

Wednesday’s abduction left neighbours on Saul Street, located near Dundas and Second streets, clearly rattled.

“You don’t feel safe now,” one resident said Thursday. “It’s scary. We’re not used to that kind of (criminal) element in the neighbourhood.” Other residents, none of whom wanted to be identified, said they’re fed up with the trouble their new neighbours have brought.

“What’s next?” asked one.

On the day of the kidnapping, neighbours said they saw a burgundy Focus with two men inside park at the corner of Evangeline and Saul streets. One of the men got out of the car and went into 442 Saul St., said one neighbour, who didn’t think much of it until police with guns drawn descended on the block shortly after and told residents to go into their homes and stay inside.

Investigators remained at the scene until about 4:30 p.m., neighbours said.

One longtime resident said she saw an investigator put a cellphone into an evidence bag.

City tax records show Randy Salz owns the house at 442 Saul St. Attempts to reach Salz Thursday were unsuccessful.

Antone’s Facebook account describes him as a “North American Aboriginal recording artist, producer . . . Founder of EoA Fam Records & Family Man.”

A former student at Beal secondary school and the Wheable Centre for Adult Education in London, Antone played a show at a Queen Street venue in Toronto last Thursday, his Facebook page says.

— With files by Free Press reporters Jane Sims and Derek Ruttan

dcarruthers@postmedia.com

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