Tuesday, March 26, 2002
Police seized a loaded handgun and several knives from the home.
By MARALINE KUBIK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- Police say a 77-year-old man held them at bay 5 1/2 hours Monday evening after he threatened his wife with a handgun and then barricaded himself in his Woodview Avenue home.
According to a press release issued by Boardman Police Chief Jeffrey Patterson, the man's wife called police from a neighbor's house at 2:45 p.m. after a domestic dispute at 116 Woodview Avenue.
Police secured the neighborhood, asking those living in adjacent homes to leave and others to stay indoors, said Mark Grunenwald, who lives three houses away and delivers mail in the neighborhood.
Police escorted Grunenwald's 12-year-old daughter home after she got off the school bus, and the family left a short time later.
"We've been sitting at Home Depot [across the street]. We didn't know what was going on and figured it was better not to be too close," Grunenwald said.
Ohio State troopers and Boardman police blocked access to the area and called in the Mahoning Valley Law Task Forces Crisis Response Team for tactical support and to negotiate.
What happened next: Police broke a window around 7:20 p.m. after the man did not respond to repeated requests to communicate with them. He failed to turn on a porch light in the duplex, which was dark, and his telephone was apparently off the hook.
Police reportedly broke the window so they could throw a phone in to the man, who still did not respond.
Police entered the home shortly after 8 p.m. Police said they discovered the man unconscious, apparently the result of "self-inflicted injuries" to his torso. They refused to describe the injuries.
Police seized a loaded handgun and several knives.
The man had also set a small fire in the kitchen, which the Boardman Fire Department quickly extinguished.
The man was taken by ambulance to St. Elizabeth Health Center, where he was in critical condition this morning.
No shots were fired during the standoff, and police did not use tear gas.
Neighbors said the man and his wife have lived in the neighborhood for years and they believe the couple owns two brick duplexes, the one in which they live and the one next door.
"He always kept to himself," said Grunenwald, who has lived in the neighborhood eight years.
Jim Marrie, who lives across the street from Grunenwald, said he hardly ever saw the 77-year-old man. "I'd always see her out," he said of the man's wife.
Marrie's daughters, 19 and 22, were home when police began securing the neighborhood, and the family spent the evening "peeking out of the blinds."
kubik@vindy.com