BY NYIER ABDOU AND JOE RYAN
Newark Star-Ledger
FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP, N.J. — A standoff with a gunman holding his girlfriend hostage Friday night in Somerset County ended peacefully when he complained of hunger and the SWAT Team distracted him with a pizza, authorities said.
The gunman, Jeffrey Cope, 37, had barricaded himself inside his parents’ Franklin Township home with three handguns and his 18-year-old girlfriend when police arrived shortly after 7 p.m. and heard gunshots, according to Somerset County Prosecutor Wayne J. Forrest said.
Cope had already fired once at his mother — but missed — and was threatening to kill himself, For rest said. After two tense hours, a negotiator persuaded Cope to allow officers inside with the pizza, and they subdued him after delivering the pie, Forrest said.
“When they delivered the food, they were able to take him into custody,” Forrest said.
His girlfriend, Siobhan Berger, of Bridgewater, escaped with minor injuries, her mother said.
Cope is being held in lieu of $300,000 bail and is charged with attempted murder.
The episode began shortly be fore 6 p.m., when Cope began to argue with Berger at the house on School House Road, just east of the Delaware and Raritan Canal, Forrest said.
Cope’s father intervened. They wound up struggling over a handgun, and the son came out on top. He ordered his father at gunpoint to open a safe and removed money and two other handguns, Forrest said.
Cope loaded the weapons and fired several rounds, striking his girlfriend’s cell phone and his parents’ home phone, Forrest said. Police later seized a total of twelve firearms from the house, including eight handguns, three rifles and one shotgun.
When Cope’s mother, Jeanne Cope, ran from the house, he fired toward her out a dinning room window, but missed, Forrest said. His father escaped, too.
But Berger was trapped inside.
At 6 p.m., Jeanne Cope called police from a neighbor’s house, say ing the woman was being held hostage.
Police arrived, and Detective Sergeant Darrin Russo managed to slip inside the house and make contact with Cope, Forrest said.
The SWAT team arrived. A few hours later, they ordered a pizza.
Copyright 2007 Newark Star-Ledger