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Man claiming to have gun barricades himself in apartment

LBPD evacuates tenants during hour-long standoff on West Broadway

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Long Beach police responded to West Broadway on Monday after a despondent man barricaded himself inside his apartment and threatened to shoot anyone who entered.

Police Commissioner Mike Tangney said the incident happened at about noon, when police received a call reporting a man inside his apartment on West Broadway who claimed to have a shotgun and said he wanted to die.

“He sounded intoxicated,” Tangney said. “He said he wanted to die and said he had a shotgun in the house.”

About a dozen police officers responded to the scene, as well as firefighters, and evacuated tenants from the garden apartment complex, a two-story building with about 20 units between Lafayette and Washington boulevards, as well as some residents on nearby West Penn Street. The street was closed to vehicle and pedestrian traffic during the incident, which occurred on a day when temperatures dropped to 29 degrees and amid snow and freezing rain.

Many residents left the area or waited in their cars during the standoff, Tangney said.

The man, whose name was not released, was holed up inside an apartment located at the rear of the complex, Tangney said, which posed a “dangerous” tactical challenge for officers.

“The apartment was all the way in the back of the complex, so the guy had a clear view of the courtyard,” said Tangney, who added that the staircase leading up to the unit was tall. “There was no way you can seek cover.”

The Nassau County Police Department's emergency services unit and a hostage negotiator also responded.

Tangney said that one of the first Long Beach police officers on the scene, David Williams, spoke to the man during the ordeal and ultimately managed to talk him out after about an hour and a half. He was transported to Nassau University Medical Center by a Long Beach Fire Department ambulance for observation. Tangney said the man was not armed, and officers did not find a gun inside the apartment.

“[Williams] was able to establish a phone conversation with him, and after about an hour, he was able to talk him out,” Tangney said. "The man came out on his own, with his hands up. It really was a textbook situation; the officers secured the area and evacuated everyone who was in the area. It was a very professional, well-done operation."

Councilwoman Fran Adelson lauded the Police Department for its response to the situation.

“Thanks to the skills and professionalism of officer Williams and the Long Beach Police Department, this incident, which had the potential to end in tragedy, was instead resolved without the use of force or loss of life,” Adelson said in a statement.

A spokeswoman for the corporation that owns the building, who declined to be identified, said tenants there expressed shock, and called the incident “unusual.”

“It’s a very nice building, and it’s not the type of thing that happens there,” said the spokeswoman. “It’s a very friendly atmosphere — the incident is not indicative of the type of tenants we have; everyone here is very professional and it’s a very Melrose Place-like atmosphere.”

The spokeswoman said the incident was “out of character” for the man, in his 20s or 30s, who moved into the building less than a year ago.

“It’s an isolated incident and it was a shock because nothing like this has ever happened here before,” she said. “He’s a young man who comes from a good family and it was out of character for him. I think he was just in a bad place.”