BY VOICE STAFF
A four-hour standoff between police and a man who had barricaded himself inside a house on Pelham Street in Fonthill has ended.
At about 10:30 PM, Niagara Regional Police successfully took the man into custody. Continual updates over a police radio frequency described the man walking out of the house, located on Pelham Street between Bacon Lane and the southern entrance to Spruceside Crescent, holding what was described as a cellphone in one hand. The man was argumentative with police over a period of approximately 10 minutes before eventually being taken into custody.
An earlier police transmission on the same frequency described the man as unwilling to “leave the house alive.”
NRPS spokesperson Stephanie Sabourin tweeted shortly after midnight Sunday morning that area roads which had been blocked off by police during the incident had been reopened, and residents who had been asked to evacuate were free to return home. A police officer who did not wish to be identified said that one concern was the potential for a deliberate natural gas explosion inside the house.
Updated to correct the standoff duration to four hours, rather than three.
