SWAT Team Responds To Shots Fired In Ann Arbor; Man Taken Into Custody
ANN ARBOR (WWJ) - Police say an incident involving shots fired, a SWAT team and a barricaded man came to a peaceful conclusion Monday morning on Ann Arbor's north side.
The situation unfolded shortly before 8 a.m. outside a home at Pear Street and Traver Road, near Barton Drive and Pontiac Trail. Ann Arbor Police Det. Lt. Matthew Lige said that's when 911 calls began to come in about a man seen in the neighborhood carrying "a long gun or a shotgun" and firing rounds into the air.
"As the officers got into the area," he told WWJ's Zahra Huber, "second calls were coming in that it was believed this same person, or another person, had what was described as a butcher knife, and was possibly puncturing holes in tires parked along the street."
Lige said officers arrived on the scene to find what shell casings from a shotgun and cars that appeared to have been damaged by a shotgun blast.
Before 10 a.m. police, including the Washtenaw Metro SWAT and the Crisis Negotiation Team, had surrounded the property. Lige said the suspect's mother was taken out of the home to safety.
"After about two hours of negotiation, a member of my hostage negotiation team was able to make contact with the person inside the home. We were able to have him come out of the home without incident," Lige said. "He was taken into protective custody and ultimately transferred up to the University of Michigan Hospital for a mental health evaluation."
Lige said police believe that the young man suffers from some mental health problems, adding that officers had just been called to the same home a couple of days before.
"...The family felt that he was having some type of an episode, and asked for police intervention in getting him up to the hospital," Lige said. "And then 48 hours after that call for service, the situation at home got worse, and we were called there for a much more violent, much more volatile circumstance."
Nearby Northside School on Barton Drive was on a "soft lockdown" for the duration of the incident; school officials telling WWJ they were "taking necessary precautions" to ensure the safety of students and staff.
No further details were released.