Lancaster County deputies, SWAT teams engaged in 7-hour standoff

Deputies and SWAT teams responded to an apartment complex Tuesday night, where they were in a standoff with a resident for about seven hours, officials say.

A sheriff’s deputy was dispatched to Northwest Apartments off West Meeting Street after residents reported hearing gunshots around 9:45 p.m., according to a Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office statement.

The deputy heard a man, who the deputy said appeared to be angry, yelling inside the apartment, the statement says.

The occupant refused to open the door when deputies knocked and “continued to speak in a loud, aggressive and threatening tone,” the statement says.

The deputies said they heard “what sounded like the action of a firearm being operated inside the apartment,” the statement says.

A man and a woman live in the apartment, according to the statement. Residents were able to identify the residents, and the woman came out of the apartment shortly after shots were heard. Crisis negotiators and the sheriff’s office and the State Law Enforcement Division SWAT teams were called in, the report says.

The man didn’t come out of the apartment until 5 a.m., the statement says.

“We had a long night last night,” Lancaster County Sheriff Barry Faile said. “Based upon the report we received and the information we gathered after we arrived, it was imperative that we talk to the man inside the apartment to ensure that he was OK and that no one else was in the apartment who was in harm’s way. The incident was resolved without force and no one was hurt.”

No one else was found inside. Two firearms were found, but investigators do not know if a firearm was discharged, the statement says.

There were no charges filed.

This story was originally published November 22, 2017 at 12:18 PM with the headline "Lancaster County deputies, SWAT teams engaged in 7-hour standoff."