A 39-year-old Bolingbrook man calmly surrendered to police officers Monday after keeping them at bay for more than seven hours during a tense standoff in front of his home that began when he threatened to shoot his wife.
The man, who had refused for seven hours to communicate with police, unexpectedly walked onto the patio of his town home in the 200 block of Dakota Court about noon. As a nervous crowd watched, he talked–in animated fashion–with a police negotiator for about 15 minutes. Then he climbed over a 3-foot porch railing and jumped onto the front lawn.
Fourteen police officers swarmed, pushed the man to the ground and handcuffed him. He was taken to police headquarters, where he was being held pending a psychological evaluation. No charges have been filed.
“We don’t know why he gave himself up. Maybe he got tired, maybe he finally felt safe enough to come out. We just don’t know,” said Bolingbrook Police Cmdr. Mike Kraft. “But obviously the negotiator said something to convince him to come out.”
Throughout the standoff, the man never threatened to shoot officers or himself, nor did he display a gun. But Kraft said police wanted him out of the home because hours earlier he had threatened to shoot his wife. Kraft said the man’s wife, who escaped from the home uninjured, told police her husband was on drugs and was despondent.
“We knew we had a depressed individual with a handgun and we wanted to get him out of the home safely, and, also make sure no one else got hurt,” Kraft said. “This is a densely populated area, and we weren’t taking any chances.”
Kraft said the incident began about 3 a.m. when the suspect and his wife, whom police would not name, got into a “scuffle.” The man allegedly pointed a gun at his wife and threatened her. She ran from the house. Two hours later, she called police from a hospital to say her husband had threatened her, Kraft said.
Police went to the home and rang the doorbell. The suspect refused to answer. Using a bullhorn, police tried to persuade him to come out. When he refused, police called for backup and evacuated several homes in the area.
By 6 a.m., a crowd had gathered on neighboring front lawns to watch the standoff.
Because the suspect did not have a phone in his home, police spent the next three hours talking through a bullhorn, trying to coax him out. When he did not respond, police smashed the front patio door and tossed a cellular phone–and later a police radio–onto the kitchen table.
Negotiators tried in vain to persuade him to pick up the phone or the radio.
When those attempts failed, police cut off power and gas to the home. Although police caught a few glimpses of the man in his home, they said he never approached a door or a window.
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By noon, when things seemed to be at a standstill and nerves were wearing thin, a police negotiator put the bullhorn to his mouth and shouted: “Come on down to the kitchen and pick up the radio. We want to make sure you are OK and let your family know you are OK.”
A few moments later, the suspect, dressed in blue jeans, a T-shirt and in his bare feet, unexpectedly approached the patio door. The negotiator, who was standing on the street, put the bullhorn aside and talked to him.
As dozens of neighbors looked on, he walked from the house and onto the patio. After a brief discussion with police, he jumped from a 3-foot-high railing onto the lawn, where he was arrested.
Kraft said police found a loaded handgun inside the home.
Kraft said police have never been called to the family’s home, where he lived with his wife and son for at least five years. But Francisco Freyre, who lives in the town home connected to the family’s, said he often heard the couple fighting.
“I hear doors open and close loud, and I hear loud talking in the mornings,” Freyre said. “Sometimes I hear loud banging.”