COMMERCE TWP. (WWJ) – A man is in custody after a nearly 12-hour long standoff in Oakland County over the weekend.
The standoff stemmed from an alleged domestic assault Saturday night at a home in Commerce Township.
Oakland County Sheriff’s deputies were called to a home on Heartwood Drive around 11 p.m. after a 34-year-old woman called to report she had been assaulted by her boyfriend, a 35-year-old Sterling Heights man.
The victim ran to a neighbor’s house after the alleged assault, according to the sheriff’s office. When first responders arrived she let them know he was intoxicated at the time of the assault, that he had access to guns and was “emotionally unstable.”
When deputies went to the home on Heartwood, they detected movement inside, but the suspect was not responding to commands to come outside. He eventually “barricaded himself in one of the bedrooms near the rear of the home,” officials said.
Believing the man was armed, a SWAT team was called to the scene just before 1 a.m. SWAT negotiators continued to try to talk with the man, but efforts were unsuccessful.
Around 3 a.m. authorities deployed a robot into the home in further attempts to make contact and gain a visual within the home. The robot was able to provide live video of the suspect moving inside the home with what appeared to be a pistol in his hand.
SWAT Team members continued to give verbal commands, which went unacknowledged, ordering the suspect to surrender. SWAT Negotiators continued for several hours to urge the suspect to surrender.
The suspect finally began talking with negotiators around 10:30 a.m. Sunday and said he would surrender peacefully. A short time later he was taken into custody and the rest of the house was cleared.
“I greatly appreciate the work of our team and their professionalism to bring this very dangerous situation to a close without anyone being seriously injured or killed,” Sheriff Mike Bouchard said, per a press release.
The suspect, whose name has not been released, is being held at the Oakland County Jail while the prosecutor’s office reviews the case for possible charges.