SWAT situation in midtown resolved peacefully
Reporter: Kevin Keen
Web Producer: Rikki Mitchell
TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) - For nine hours beginning early Wednesday morning, dozens of officers, police cars and armored trucks lined a midtown street.
But this SWAT standoff wasn't because of any crime or any criminal, police say.
Officers say they moved in on a home near Mountain and Park to take a 35-year-old man to a hospital for a mental evaluation.
Police say the man's family requested that evaluation and a judge approved it presumably, according to police, because he could be a danger to himself or to others.
Officers say the man barricaded himself inside with a gun, and heard from the family he might be suicidal. Negotiators moved in.
"When they made contact with him, they were able to talk him into coming out of the house peacefully," said Sgt. Chris Widmer with TPD. "Sometimes that can take five minutes; sometimes it can take nine hours. It mainly depends on the person inside the house."
Police say this situation ended peacefully and the department is not pursuing any charges against the man right now. For that reason, police won't release his name.
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