Lexington, SC 08/26/2021 (Paul Kirby) – Police officers with the Lexington Police Department have closed Roberts Street from South Church Street to Claudius Street Thursday morning after a subject barricaded himself inside a structure and refused to follow the instructions of officer. According to the Lexington Police Department’s Twitter site, at noon Thursday, their incident was located in the 200 block of Roberts Street.
Earlier reports indicated the subject was distraught and may be armed with a handgun. Officers say he had threatened to harm himself before he barricaded himself inside a shed or outbuilding. The police quickly established a perimeter around the scene and removed neighbors from nearby homes as they worked to reason with the subject. They are asking the public to stay clear of the area while they work through this incident.
When the police first were summoned to the scene, they realized the subject was not following their commands or being cooperative. At that point, specially trained officers with the LPD’s Crisis Negotiations Team were called and began to attempt to establish a line of communication with the subject. Additionally, special equipment such as their Drone Unit were deployed to help monitor the situation and ensure that any danger was contained to the specific area where the subject was hold up.
At one point, police officers appeared to be speaking with family members of the subject in hopes that they could in some way assist in the negotiations. As one would expect, the goal of the police appears to be bringing this incident to a conclusion without the public, any law enforcement officers, or the subject being injured. Lexington’s Police Department has dealt with other situations such as this in the past and have been able to bring those to a successful resolution. In previous incidents, the Department's officers have shown extreme patience and restraint as these types of situations can sometimes drag on for long periods of time.
Thursday afternoon, officers had established contact with the subject over the phone and were talking in an attempt to bring the standoff to an end. A spokesman for the department assured the public that there was no danger to others because of this incident.
Police have established a media area and are committed to releasing more information when it is appropriate to do so. We will update this story at that point as more becomes available.
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