‘It’s tragic’: 25-hour SWAT standoff ends after man dies by suicide, police said

CHARLOTTE — The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said a SWAT situation that lasted roughly 25 hours ended when the barricaded man died by suicide Monday afternoon.

Police responded around 1:30 p.m. on Sunday to the scene on Prideland Court, off South Tryon Street in southwest Charlotte. In an update Monday afternoon, Captain John Thomas said the initial call was for domestic violence and suicidal thoughts.

According to police, officers were told a man inside a condo in the Lions Gate neighborhood was considering suicide. As officers arrived, they found the man in the driveway armed with a shotgun.

Officers immediately evacuated the surrounding area and repeatedly tried to de-escalate the situation peacefully. When the subject went into the attached garage and refused to leave the home, officers called in the SWAT team.

CMPD provided an update around 8:30 a.m. Monday, saying officers were working to de-escalate the situation. Officers apparently were attempting to serve an involuntary custody order on Sunday to get the man mental health help.

Just before 1 p.m. Monday, police said the standoff was over. In an update at about 1:15 p.m., Thomas said much of the almost 25-hour window of time was spent on a 4-way call between the man, his family and friends, negotiators and CMPD’s Negotiators and Community Policing Crisis Response Team (CPCRT).

Earlier in the morning, CMPD said the man had fired a gun at about 4 a.m. from inside the condo unit but could not provide any further details. Shortly before noon on Monday, Channel 9 crews could hear what sounded like flashbangs and saw some smoke in the area.

Neighbors told Channel 9 they heard them too, and Dee McCord said she decided to do what she could to help.

“We heard a couple of big booms, from our house so we just decided to do a prayer walk and come down to see if we could just pray for the people,” she said. “These people have been out here laboring all night and it’s probably very tiresome, and so we just came to offer prayers for the community -- for the area, for the people involved.”

No injuries were reported and CMPD had evacuated neighboring condo units while the department’s Community Policing Crisis Response Team worked to bring the situation to an end.

However, CMPD said at about 12:30 p.m. Monday, another shot rang out and the man was seen falling to the ground. Officers said the man died by suicide from that shot.

Thomas said he hadn’t seen a negotiation last that long before in all the time he had spent with the team.

“I don’t know anything more that we could have done to help this man,” Thomas said.

Thomas went on to say that he saw nothing but compassion and outpouring from all sides of the situation, but it wasn’t enough to save the man’s life.

“It’s tragic,” Thomas said.

Police and CMS officials had to direct all students in the Lions Gate neighborhood that usually take the bus to school to be picked up at two different spots Monday morning: South Tryon Street at Lions Mane Street and South Tryon Street at Erwin Road.

South Tryon Street near Erwin Road was shut down for several hours on Sunday due to the police presence but officials said there was no threat to the public. South Tryon Street remained open on Monday.

Police did not release the name of the man.

This is an ongoing investigation and officers have not released any other details at this point.

Return to this story for updates.

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