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Halloween night 2007.

SWAT team ends 4-hour standoff safely
By Jeff Haldiman
jhaldiman@newstribune.com

A man who held police at bay for more than four hours Thursday morning was physically removed from his home by members of the Jefferson City Police Department's SWAT Team before sunrise.

Police Capt. Mike Smith said the 39-year-old Jefferson City man, who apparently was suffering from mental problems, was taken to Mid-Mo Mental Health Center in Columbia for evaluation. He anticipated that no charges would be filed against the man because no one was hurt.

The incident began just after 1:30 a.m. at a home in the 100 block of Forest Hill Avenue, when the 911 center got a call from the man's mother, Smith said.

“She had fled the home and was calling from a nearby convenience store. (She) said her son was drunk and delusional and she was afraid for her safety,” he added.

Officers later learned there were guns in the home, but the mother had hid them so her son couldn't get to them.

When officers arrived, they went inside to find the man was locked in a bedroom. Officers tried to talk with the man, who pointed the barrel of what turned out to be a BB gun out of the bedroom door and at the officers, who then left the home, Smith said.

Once that happened, officers set up a perimeter around the home and the SWAT team was called in.

According to Smith, negotiators were in phone contact with the man and “had conversations, on and off,” until around 5 a.m.

After that, police only had some verbal communication with the suspect, who came out of the home a couple of times and was armed with a samurai-type sword, Smith said.

Officers tried to take the man down with Tasers and non-lethal beanbag rounds, but both times, the subject was able to make it back inside. Smith noted the man is about 6-5 and weighs approximately 280 pounds.

“Usually, these non-lethal type of weapons will still do the job of taking a person down. But when there is alcohol and medication involved, it can give a person the ability to overcome their effects,” Smith said.

Smith also pointed out that it was hard to get a good angle on the subject because he was coming out onto a fenced-in porch.

Around 6 a.m., officers tried to drive the subject out using pepper spray, but with no effect.

“Due to the fact there was a child care center nearby, parents and children would soon be coming to the neighborhood and it was starting to get daylight, we made the decision that we needed to bring the situation to an end,” Smith said.

Around 6:30 a.m., SWAT team members made a tactical entry into the home and rushed the subject, taking him down without firing a shot.

Smith said this incident did allow the SWAT team to use some new tools, including an $8,000 ballistic shield. It can be carried by three officers and be used to shield them as they go in and bring out civilians, which happened in this case.

“This is a nice neighborhood and, tactically, it was a challenge for us,” Smith said. “We had a family in one home next door and an elderly woman living on the other side, but we were able to keep everybody safe.”