By Marlon A. Walker
The News & Observer
RALEIGH — A nearly four-hour standoff with Raleigh police ended late Wednesday after an unidentified man barricaded inside a North Raleigh business shot himself.
Raleigh police said they got a call around 6 p.m. Wednesday that a man was barricaded in one of several businesses in a building at 5621 Departure Drive.
The police watch commander, Lt. K.S. Swinson, said police established communication with the man and tried for several hours to talk him into coming out. Swinson declined to identify the man.
Swinson, who said she did not know how police were communicating with the man, said communications broke off after about three hours.
Shortly after that, officers heard a single gunshot.
Members of the police department’s Selective Enforcement Unit, which handles special situations such as hostage standoffs, and Wake County EMS personnel were at the scene and entered the building.
Swinson confirmed the man was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound and was taken to WakeMed-Raleigh Campus, where his condition wasn’t immediately known. Investigators went to the hospital Wednesday night to piece together what had happened.
Mike Tadych, who said his father owns a business in the complex, said after first hearing about the standoff, he rushed to the building to get more information and to make sure his father’s business was intact. When he arrived at the scene, he said about 20 police cars were in the streets around the building. He was met by police officers who were telling people that there was no information available on the incident.
“We just wanted to know what was going on,” he said.
As of 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, Raleigh police were still preventing access to the building. By 11:30 p.m., the last police car was gone, Swinson said.
Copyright 2007 The News and Observer