GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A man who allegedly attacked his family members with an ax surrendered peacefully to Grand Rapids police after an about four-hour standoff Sunday.
Grand Rapids Police Department officers arrived on Thelma Avenue SE between Griggs and Elliott streets in the city's South East End neighborhood around 3 p.m.
Capt. Geoff Collard said the suspect, who is around the age of 55, apparently argued with his brother and elderly father and then swung an ax at them. They managed to get the ax away from them, but one person's hand was injured in the process. That person was hospitalized, but the injury is not considered life-threatening.
The man then went into the house, which belongs to his father. It was not immediately clear whether the man lives there, too.
Collard said the man told family members that he had a gun and that he was "not going to come outside without having some sort of a shootout with the police and/or potentially committing suicide by cop."
As a result, neighbors were told to go inside.
"What we don't want to have happen is to him to come outside and start shooting at anybody or at the police, and/or us having to return fire and have anybody in the area that's at risk," Collard said.
An armored vehicle carrying the city's Special Response Team arrived around 5 p.m. Negotiators were called in and eventually managed to talk the suspect into coming out peacefully.
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