Detroit police resolve barricaded scene without incident on city's southwest side
Barricaded woman surrenders without incident after several hours in apartment
A Detroit police commander at one point was worried that his hand would be forced after a woman barricaded in her apartment threatened to start lighting things on fire. However, after police created report with the woman, she surrendered without incident.
DETROIT - After hours of negotiations, Detroit police resolved a barricaded situation peacefully on the city's southwest side after an alleged domestic dispute escalated into a standoff throughout most of the morning Monday.
Commander Darren Szilagy said the woman would come out to the porch, start lighting things on fire, and told police she was going to come out with a gun and have police kill her.
"So it was a suicide by cop situation, very difficult and dangerous situation for our police officers to be in in the middle of the night here in southwest Detroit," said Szilagy.
Law enforcement was at an apartment around Belle and Springwells for much of the morning after the woman barricaded herself in her residence around 2 a.m.
However, police made progress and created report with the woman after using recordings from her parents. She surrendered peacefully after that.
Police have not commented on what prompted the barricade but said the suspect had a long history of mental illness.
"(Since) police have become the clearinghouse for mental illness since this country won't fund programs to help people that are sick, and being the most heavily regulated industry, we do a great job of it. Though we shouldn't have to," said Szilagy.
The commander estimates about 50% of his barricaded person situations have a mental illness.
Friends had previously said the suspect got in a fight with their girlfriend that escalated.
"It's very frightening. I can't even go home," said Yolanda Simpson earlier in the morning, who knows the suspect. "I have a lady and two kids in my car because they stay up under the apartment."