HARTFORD — An “emotionally disturbed person” was taken into custody near Hartford Public High School Tuesday morning.
Around 8 a.m. police got a 911 call from a resident on Forrest Street about an unknown person banging on an apartment door. Officers responded and found splintered marks on the door that looked like they came from an ax or sharp object. Another resident saw the suspect and said he lived in a specific apartment.
When the patrol officers went to that apartment, the emotionally disturbed person exited it wielding a 3-4 foot ax. One of the officers raised his firearm and demanded the man drop the ax, but he then went back in his apartment and locked it.
The patrol officers called for back up, and about a dozen cop cars and SWAT team members responded.
A trained hostage negotiator also responded and spoke to the suspect, who was determined to be alone in his apartment. He said several times he had a gun and wanted “to shoot the place up,” which led the school, which is located at 55 Forest, to go into a precautionary “code yellow.” Also, Forest and Hawthorne Streets were closed in the area so a perimeter could be established. The apartment building was also evacuated. A city bus was brought in to keep people warm while they waited outside.
Police set off a flash-bang to get the person out of the apartment. Around 10 a.m. a man was brought out in handcuffs, and then taken to get services at the hospital. Witnesses say he was yelling in another language.
Police said the man, a 55-year-old Jamaican male who lives in Hartford, has an extensive history with Hartford police going back more than a decade and that this has happened before. He is being treated at the hospital.
