Police is Pennsylvania successfully saved a 2-year-old child from a potentially deadly situation. An unnamed man allegedly held himself and his daughter hostage inside their Ambridge home on October 8 in a standoff with police for several hours. Police reportedly showed up at the house to arrest the man for a different incident. When the man saw them, he allegedly grabbed the child and went inside.
Neighbors watched in fear as SWAT officers attempted to negotiate with the man for hours. When they realized he wasn’t backing down, they went in and saved the child, ultimately arresting the man.
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The standoff began in the afternoon.
Per WPXI, police were at the family’s duplex on the 200 block of 6th Street around 3 p.m. Police attempted to arrest him for a domestic violence incident from the day before, but he reportedly fled. The man allegedly barricaded himself inside the home with the child. Police initially believed the father had a gun, but apparently, that was not the case.
SWAT officers arrived on the home.
Neighbor Breanna Mitchell, 14, told WPXI she watched the incident to unfold. “They kept running in and out. They was not going in all the way,” Mitchell said.
Her sister, Yasmine Avia, confirmed that observation. “They kept running in and out. They was not going in all the way,” she said.
Police attempted to negotiate with the man.
Ambridge Police Chief John DeLuca told WPXI that they brought in Spanish-speaking negotiators to try to get the child out of the home safely.
“We had several interpreters there taking several breaks, going back and forth talking to the subject, and at no point was he going to surrender,” he said.
SWAT officers reportedly set off two rounds of flash bangs and went inside to get the child.
“At one point he became agitated where we felt it was necessary to go in and save the 2-year-old child before things escalated further,” DeLuca explained.
The situation worried the community.
Mandy Inches shared her concern for the child’s mother, per WPXI. “Wherever the mother is, I can’t imagine what she would be going through,” Inches said. “It’s scary, especially going after children. You don’t do that.”
Another person posted on a community Facebook page about concerns: “I’m glad to hear the kids were OK but what about the dangerous person in the community we have a right to know this kind of stuff never happened in ambridge before lately something is wrong.”
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The father faces multiple charges.
Police booked him in Beaver County Hail on a prior domestic violence charge, according to WPXI. He likely will face additional charges in relation to the hostage standoff. It is unclear where the 2-year-old child is now.
DeLuca said officers picked up the man’s 12-year-old stepchild after school so that child was not in the home during the standoff.
