big doings in a small town

[scherry2]

this happened in the town I live in. its a small town and it seemed like a big thing untill.... well you'll understand if you read it. Standoff ends peacefully – in another townPolice surrounded house in Roanoke that was empty.By Jeff Wiehe jwiehe@news-sentinel.com Officer Sands: Town marshal cited man’s violent past Sheriff Farthing: Tracking cell-phone activity helped locate couple ROANOKE — The snipers lay flat on the roof of Nick’s Junction on U.S. 24. They trained their infrared-scope rifles on a white two-story house across the closed highway.Men with guns lurked in the shadows near the same house at 337 Canal St. They wore all black. Some moved close to the house, guns drawn, and then backed away. An armored vehicle sat outside, intermittently blaring sirens.“Just let us know you’re all right. Give us a sign,” an officer of the Fort Wayne Police Department’s Crisis Response Team repeated over and over through a loudspeaker.Another officer eventually threw a flash-bang grenade, designed to distract and disorient, into the house. Boom. Fifteen minutes later, an officer threw another. Boom. A smoke detector in the home beeped. Someone shot canisters of tear gas through the windows, which at times sounded like the patter of gunfire. Officers blew apart a door with explosives.Then, a five-hour standoff Thursday night in Roanoke ended peacefully with no injuries — in Huntington.Police arrested Bryan Graham, 47, without incident at a Super 8 Motel in Huntington for violating a protective order filed by his estranged wife in November. Graham, a retired Roanoke postal worker who served in the Navy, and his wife, Marsha Heyde Graham, 40, were found at the motel around 9:40 p.m. — trying to reconcile with each other.The home police surrounded for most of the evening, causing several roads in Roanoke to be closed as well as a long stretch of U.S. 24, had been empty the entire time.Both Graham and his wife were completely unaware that the house, at which he had been staying, became the center of police and residents’ attention after neighbors heard what sounded like a gunshot in it about 4:10 p.m.According to Roanoke Town Marshal Eric Sands, officials called the Fort Wayne Police Department’s Emergency Services and Crisis Response teams, the department’s version of a SWAT unit, because of Graham’s past.Sands said Graham and his wife lived apart, and police have come to Graham’s home six different times. The past three times, they confiscated handguns from him. The last time police were called to the Canal Street home was Nov. 15, when Graham threatened to kill himself and then threatened to kill officers.Four hours of coaxing by Indiana State Police negotiators that time got Graham out of the house. He was evaluated at a hospital, and charges were never brought against him for the incident. Shortly thereafter, his wife filed the protective order, accusing Graham of abuse.Thursday, Marsha Heyde Graham’s teenage son called police about 3 p.m. saying he hadn’t seen his mother since 2 a.m. Police drove by Bryan Graham’s home and saw his car but were unable to make contact with anyone inside. Then news of the “gunshot” came, which police think could’ve been a noise from a truck.Huntington County Sheriff Kent Farthing said technology played a big role in locating the couple. Police tapped into one of the couple’s cell phones and were able to see when they were contacting someone. At first, it caused confusion.It seemed whenever the police tried to distract Graham, like toss a flash grenade in the house or shoot tear gas, a text message would be sent from the phone as if Graham was communicating with someone, possibly reacting to the action.Police could not read the text messages; they could only see when they were sent. For a while, the phone was turned off. Police began to text message the phone, and Graham’s wife finally responded, saying she was with Graham at the Super 8.Graham talked with officers over the phone for about 15 minutes before surrendering. He was unarmed. Farthing said he was cordial and not violent.