"Man taken into custody after siege at home in Roxbury" by Laura Crimaldi and John R. Ellement Globe Staff January 22, 2016
The man who officials said barricaded himself inside a Roxbury apartment building Friday morning before surrendering peacefully to police was ordered held in lieu of $10,000 cash bail in Roxbury Municipal Court after pleading not guilty to assault with a dangerous weapon.
James L. Humphries, 28, is accused of pointing what appeared to be a firearm at a neighbor after assaulting a woman in the hallway of his Hutchings Street apartment building, according to a statement from Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s office.
Humphries then allegedly barricaded himself in his apartment, an act that brought a major response from Boston police who sent SWAT officers, a negotiator, ambulances, and a firetruck into the neighborhood. An armored vehicle was kept on standby. An MBTA bus was also brought in to warm any evacuees, police said.
Silly excuse cover for another Jade Helm drill or just over-militarized reaction in the age of total state tyranny?
The standoff lasted about 2½ hours and ended after the police negotiator spoke with the man, who then decided to surrender peacefully. Police were waiting for a search warrant Friday night before they could search the man’s apartment for a firearm, officials said.
Adam Brown, who lives across from the apartment building, said he did not realize anything was amiss until he looked out his window and saw officers had swarmed the area. He described the police as calm but concerned.
Boston Police Commissioner William B. Evans told reporters that witnesses saw an armed man hitting a woman on the street.
“He pulled the woman back into the apartment,” Evans said after the stand off ended. “The officers tried to make headway into the apartment but they couldn’t, due to the dangerous nature of the call.”
“The negotiators were successful in talking the suspect out of the apartment,” Evans said. “Thank God there was no female injured in the apartment at all and right now he’s being taken into custody.”
He described the operation as “textbook” for the way officers negotiated with the man and “slowed down the incident.”
“Nobody got hurt,” Evans said. “Sometimes if you move quick on these incidents someone can get hurt. They slowed it down. Time is always our best friend here and they were able to talk him out of the apartment without anyone getting hurt.”
Hmmm.
Boston police took a man into custody after a standoff Friday morning in Roxbury (Justin Saglio for the Boston Globe).
I hate to say it, but it looks like Star Wars to me.
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