4-Hour Standoff Ends With Sword-Wielding Man In Custody In Strawberry Mansion
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PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A four-hour-long standoff ends overnight after a man, armed with a sword, barricaded himself inside of a Strawberry Mansion home. Officers say he hurled nearly a dozen objects at them throughout the duration of the barricade situation.
It happened on the 2400 block of North Myrtlewood Street that began around 8 p.m. Monday.
Police found a 42-year-old man outside, allegedly high off of narcotics and wielding off officers with a two-foot-long sword. He was ordered to drop the sword multiple times by police officers but refused and instead continued to swing the sword at officers and threaten them.
Police say one officer deployed his taser, but the man ripped the taser prongs off of him before running back inside the home to a second-floor window.
From above, the man still held the sword in one hand and with his other hand hurled objects towards police officers. At one point, he even tried urinating on police.
Mark Beckwith, the man's roommate, said he returned home from work to find a huge police presence on his block and his roommate wielding a sword as he ignored officers' commands to drop his weapon.
"So, I tried to assist. I tried to talk him down, but when you start swinging at jawns, it's time to go," Beckwith says.
Authorities say he also grabbed anything he could, including a weed whacker and broken furniture and threw those items at officers. The man even threatened to blow up the home.
Throughout the standoff, he broke a door apart and threw it out the window. He also threw a large piece of glass out the window as well as a torn apart bed frame.
Others noted that he chucked an air conditioning unite outside, across the street, and hit a van.
"He was just going crazy, he had the sword. I'm like, 'Man, calm down,'" Eric Robinson, another roommate, adds.
More than three hours into the standoff, the man held a lighter in his hand, telling police he was going to turn on the home's gas, potentially causing an explosion.
Nearby homes were evacuated while officers put tear-gas inside.
"I believe they tried everything in their power to save that man's life and they did," Beckwith said.
The man eventually came out and was taken into custody before being taken to a mental health facility.
Nobody was hurt in the incident.
