A man is in custody in an eastern Massachusetts town on Sunday night after authorities said he took a chainsaw to the local police station before fleeing and barricading himself in his home with his two young children.
After SWAT officers made a tactical entry into the home, they located the suspect in a room above the garage, according to Cohasset police. He resisted arrest and was tased. Police did not immediately release his identity.
His children—a girl and boy both younger than 5 years old—were found in another part of the house, together and unharmed, and were reunited with their mother.
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In an earlier news conference, Chief Bill Quigley had said that the man had arrived at the Cohasset Police Station around 2:30 p.m. that day, and had unsuccessfully attempted to cut through a security door with a gas chainsaw.
He said that the civilian clerk on duty at the time had barricaded herself and was able to hit a button summoning officers to the front desk. “She’s completely traumatized,” but was unharmed, Quigley said.
The man then retreated to his home on Cushing Road, roughly half a mile away from the police station. A state police bomb squad was on the scene with “robotic platforms,” but a spokesperson told reporters that the situation remained under the purview of the local authorities. Hostage negotiators spent several hours attempting to speak to the man; it was not immediately clear how successful these efforts were.
Cohasset, a town of just over 8,000 people, lies roughly 20 miles southeast of Boston.
A police spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment by The Daily Beast.
