Standoff

So M and I are motoring along our street, heading for home after work. As we approach our drive, we note that the street is barricaded two blocks away by a police cruiser and a couple of orange cones. A car that tries to pass is redirected by an officer.

"What's going on up there?" wonders M.

A tiny voice inside my head whispers "armed standoff," but I disregard it, as I watch entirely too much television. "Beats me," I reply. We turn into the driveway and think no more about it.

So the tiny voice is right, of course. It generally is.

Police cordoned off several blocks near Tamm Avenue in the Dogtown neighborhood for several hours Wednesday as they as they negotiated by phone with a disturbed 42-year-old man barricaded in a home.

The standoff ended peacefully about 7:30 p.m.

The man's family had called for help about 1 p.m., saying the man has a history of mental illness and was threatening to harm himself. Police were told he had a number of weapons in the four-family flat in the 6400 block of Nashville Avenue.

Students at nearby St. James the Greater Catholic Elementary School, 1350 Tamm Avenue, were evacuated as a precaution, Harris said.

Breathless news coverage (with tortured aspect ratio) from NBC affiliate KSDK available.

Glad that no one was hurt.

(Cross-posted...and hey, excellent Halloween banner!)