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.
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.
