The City of Lockport had a tense standoff situation on Monday. There was a Gasport connection to the drama (in bold below), as the Lockport Union Sun and Journal reports....
LOCKPORT: Armed standoff ends peacefully
By April Amadon, Niagara Newspapers
A tense situation ended with a peaceful resolution Monday as an apparently suicidal man held police in a standoff near a city elementary school. Michael A. Huntington, 42, 167 Olcott St., is now in police custody and facing several charges after a two-hour standoff on Olcott Street.
The incident began about 9:50 a.m., when city police responded to a home on Market Street for a report of a stolen car. A woman there said Huntington had told her he was contemplating suicide and had stolen her car.
Huntington then drove to a friend’s home on Quaker Road in Gasport. He did not go inside, but reportedly called his friend from his cell phone and told her he was thinking about killing himself.
The woman at the Quaker Road home told sheriff’s deputies she was talking on the phone with Huntington when she heard a gunshot. Sheriff’s investigators are trying to determine from which direction that shot was fired and if anything was struck.
Huntington drove away toward the City of Lockport. Meanwhile, a bulletin was issued to local law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout for the stolen car.About 10:15 a.m., Lockport Police Officer Brian LeBere saw Huntington driving west on Olcott Street and attempted a traffic stop.
Huntington’s car sped up and struck a tree in front of 167 Olcott St. Although that is Huntington’s listed address, Lockport Police Chief Eggert said he had recently been evicted from the building.
Huntington reportedly got out of the car and displayed the shotgun. Despite LeBere’s requests to drop the gun, Huntington allegedly placed himself between two parked cars and held the gun to his head.
Across the street, neighbor JoAnne Ciraza looked outside and saw Huntington leaning up against a car, the shotgun pressed to his head. “It seemed like a TV show,” she said. “I thought he was going to commit suicide.”
More officers arrived, soon joined by New York State troopers and sheriff’s deputies, who isolated Huntington and set up a perimeter, cordoning off nearby streets. Nearby neighbors were evacuated from the area. Ciraza said she was contacted by phone by a law enforcement officer, who told her to leave the house from the back door and go toward Dolan Park. The incident occurred two blocks from DeWitt Clinton Elementary School close to dismissal time. The school was placed in lockdown mode.
State Police Investigator James Thompson, a hostage negotiator, responded to the scene to talk with Huntington.Sheriff’s Capt. Steven Preisch said the situation was potentially a “worst-case scenario” for the negotiator.“It was a face-to-face confrontation, not from a house to a telephone,” he said. “Obviously, with an armed suspect, being outside, it just really complicated it.”
During the standoff, Huntington tried to go inside the house once but was ordered by officers to back away, Eggert said. Several times, Huntington used his cell phone to call people from the scene, allegedly threatening them, according to Eggert.
Deputies brought the Quaker Road woman to the scene during the incident, Preisch said.“She did get on the PA and talk with (Huntington),” he said.
About 12:15 p.m., after nearly two hours of negotiation, Huntington unloaded the shotgun and dropped it. Officers moved in and took him into custody.Eggert said the situation represented “a really outstanding bit of inter-agency cooperation.”
“We were able to meld three departments together to solve this,” he said. “It takes a lot of skill, a lot of bravery to stand within 30 yards of a man with a loaded shotgun and talk to him. Our hats are off to the hostage negotiators, they did a good job on this.”
