SPANISH FORK — A domestic dispute Friday in Spanish Fork escalated to a tense standoff with armed cops.
Spanish Fork Police Lt. Steve Adams said a man who lives near 300 East and 500 North began arguing with his wife about 1:30 p.m.
When the wife threatened to take their child and leave, he grabbed a shotgun and said he would to shoot himself if she left, according to Adams.
Then, he fired one shell into a wall, Adams said, and the woman fled with the child in the family car. She called police when she arrived at a friend's house.
When police arrived the man had locked himself in the duplex. Police ordered him out, but he refused. The man had no telephone, Adams said.
Officers shouted orders to the man using a megaphone — attracting the attention of curious neighbors — but the man wouldn't budge.
To keep onlookers from getting too close to the scene, police blocked off several streets in the neighborhood.
Attempts to convince the man to leave his home failed.
So residences on both sides of the man's duplex were evacuated. Then, police drove a black, armored SWAT truck close to the duplex and fired a dozen tear gas cartridges through the windows.
Two SWAT teams entered from the front and back doors and found the man hiding in a back room. He was handcuffed and transported to Mountain View Hospital in Payson, where police said he was in good physical condition.
He was visibly alert and moving when brought to a waiting ambulance on a gurney. Police also used a robot to aid in the arrest and removed at least two rifles or shotguns from the home.
Neighbor George Beardall said the couple had just moved into the duplex and he hadn't yet gotten acquainted with them. No one nearby questioned by the Deseret Morning News knew their names.
However, neighbors said they heard the pair fighting the previous night over financial problems.
Police also said the argument may have been about prescription-drug use.
E-mail: rodger@desnews.com