Police say a man tried to cut through a door at the station Sunday with a chainsaw before barricading himself at his house in Cohasset, Massachusetts.
Brien Buckley, who is scheduled to appear in court Monday, allegedly drove over the police station’s lawn and hit a tree on the property, WCVB reported.
He then exited the truck and went inside the lobby, revving a gas powered chainsaw which he is accused of using to damage the room and cut at the security door.
A civilian desk attendant at the station fled for safety and locked herself inside an office where she hit the panic button, prompting officers to respond.
In a social media post on Sunday, the department said the man eventually fled the station in his truck:
He was tracked by officers to his residence at 37 Cushing Road, Cohasset. A perimeter was established at his home, and additional units were dispatched to the area. The male began yelling at officers from inside the home and dangled 2-small children in front of a 2nd story window. When the male refused to come out of the home, a ‘tactical alert’ was called, which drew police officers in from surrounding towns, including Hingham, Hull, Scituate, and Norwell Police.
While officials tried to deescalate the situation, SWAT team members and hostage negotiators arrived to assist.
Several hours later, the man became erratic “to the point where SWAT supervisors sought permission to enter the home due to the increasingly clear and present danger to the children. Permission was granted by Cohasset Commanders, and the suspect was taken into custody after resisting arrest,” the agency explained.
The children were brought safely out of the house and united with their mother and grandfather. Meanwhile, officers used a taser to subdue the suspect.
Video footage showed tire tracks on the grass outside the Cohasset Police station and what appeared to be the suspect leaning outside a window, tossing items onto the ground:
“He was agitated with the officers and when he went to that window that gave us the opportunity we knew he was away from the kids to take him into custody,” Cohasset Police Chief William Quigley said, adding the suspect was transferred to South Shore Hospital to undergo a mental health evaluation.
Following the ordeal, Quigley called it “the best case scenario” because everyone, including the children, are safe:
The suspect faces charges including assault by means of a dangerous weapon, two counts of child endangerment, resisting arrest, driving to endanger, unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, and three counts of damage to property, the WCVB article said.
Meanwhile, citizens suffering the crime wave in President Joe Biden’s (D) America “are more likely now than at any time over the past five decades to say there is more crime in their local area than there was a year ago,” Gallup reported in October.
“The 56% of U.S. adults who report an increase in crime where they live marks a five-percentage-point uptick since last year and is the highest by two points in Gallup’s trend dating back to 1972,” the article read.