By Doug Miller
The firefighters, both members of the career firefighters brigade, were responding to a 911 call from 52 E. Hudson St. reporting a man with a head injury. According to police reports, the man who answered the door, Adam Hall, 36, became "combative" almost immediately. The firefighters' call for police assistance at 5:50 p.m. was followed about a minute later by another call reporting shots fired in the residence.
When police arrived, the firefighters had managed to find cover, while Hall barricaded himself in the home. According to Long Beach Police Lt. Eugene Brown, the officer in charge on the scene, police surrounded the home while officers Steven Gumiela and Patrick McLoughlin tried to talk Hall into surrendering, which he did, peacefully, after 15 minutes.
Hall's gun, a two-shot .38-caliber derringer pistol, was recovered, and police said the weapon had been fired twice. No other weapons or ammunition were recovered from the home.
Hall was charged with first-degree reckless endangerment, second-degree criminal use of a firearm and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon. He was arraigned Monday in Long Beach City Court and had bail set at $100,000.
The firefighters were treated at Long Beach Medical Center for minor injuries sustained while fleeing the shots, and released. According to officials, one of the firefighters jumped from the residence's second-story porch. Neither firefighter was identified by police.
The episode provided a stark reminder for public safety officials of just how dangerous knocking on doors can be. "It was a very close call," said a fire department spokesman, Ex-Chief Scott Kemins. "I've been in 26 years and I believe that it's the first time that firefighters have been in the line of fire. It's not something you expect here in Long Beach."
For the police, it was a question of falling back on their training, Brown said. Neither Gumiela nor McLoughlin have received formal training in hostage negotiations, Brown said, but with the Nassau County Police's Emergency Services and K-9 units en route, the two took charge and diffused a volatile situation. "During some of their training, everyone is exposed to some of the dynamics of hostage negotiating," Brown said. "But not like those people who have that as their job, like that movie 'Dog Day Afternoon.' What they were doing was just establishing a dialogue with the guy and gently made him realize it was in his own best interests to surrender peacefully, and he finally decided to do that."
Gumiela and McLoughlin used their police cruiser's public address system to communicate with Hall before one of his relatives, whom police found in the neighborhood, provided them with Hall's cell phone number.
For Brown, who is nearing his 30th anniversary with the department, such standoffs are rare but not unheard of.
Last October on Irish Day, for instance, a West End resident threatened to commit suicide by blowing himself up using the gas from his stove. Two Long Beach police lieutenants, Michael Tangney and Vincent Buscemi, kicked down his door and tackled him before he could ignite the barbecue lighter he was holding, saving several homes in the perimeter.
"We get similar type situations, but [standoffs] can take all different forms," Brown said. "In the early 1980s there was an instance where three members of the department climbed the Long Beach water tower. This was an individual who had been using drugs and pretty much disoriented, and they had to talk to him to get him to come down.
"And in the late 1980s, we had a guy who locked himself in his apartment and was threatening to kill himself," Brown continued. "Something happens and people get agitated or upset. Luckily it's rare here."
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