A 42-year-old male from south Forsyth has been taken into custody Tuesday, ending an hours-long standoff with authorities at his townhome after the suspect claimed to be held hostage by burglars.
SWAT teams from the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office and North Fulton entered the suspect’s two-story townhome off Prestwyck Court in the Whittington Subdivision at approximately 4:10 p.m. and found the suspect in an upstairs bedroom, according to Doug Rainwater, spokesman for the FCSO.
The suspect was removed without incident and checked on scene by the Forsyth County Fire Department. He will eventually be taken to the Forsyth County Jail.
Rainwater said the suspect will be charged with aggravated assault.
“We literally did everything we could to try to get him to out, and he just refused,” Rainwater said. “At some point, you have to say, that’s it.
“We were confident in our SWAT teams that we could go in and retrieve him safely.”
The incident began at 9 a.m. Tuesday after the sheriff’s office received 911 calls from a male subject who stated that he “was being held against his will” in south Forsyth.
Rainwater said that they responded within minutes to the address with SWAT, a hostage negotiation team and other specialized units. Rainwater said deputies heard gunshots from a semi-automatic handgun coming from inside when they arrived on scene.
Rainwater said authorities attempted to contact the suspect to no avail. They put three cellphones through the front door. They used a camera-mounted robot to verify the apartment layout and that the suspect was alone and armed. They used tear gas to try to force the suspect out. Nothing worked.
“We tried every avenue,” Rainwater said. “He’s not talking to us on the phone, so we can’t negotiate. At the end of the day, we need to go in and get him out, especially before dark.”
Authorities are still determining what sparked the situation, but Rainwater said they have not ruled out drug and alcohol intoxication or mental impairment.
Alexander Popp contributed to this report.