A standoff in a police parking lot ended peacefully in Clarkston Tuesday.
Officers said a woman carrying a gun tried to get into the Clarkston Police Department but the doors were locked.
One officer played a critical role in de-escalating the situation and taking the woman into custody after a two-hour standoff.
Police said she first tried to enter a door leading to the police department with a gun.
She then climbed into a forklift that was sitting in the parking lot near that door.
Police blocked off all roads surrounding the police department and City Hall while they tried to get her to drop the gun and get out of the forklift.
She may have gotten inside the department, but thankfully an officer spotted her and got other officers to the scene quickly.
“I feel like I stopped… intervened in something that could have been worse,” Clarkston Police Sgt. Dustin Bulcher said.
When Bulcher pulled into work at around 8 a.m. he saw a woman with a firearm in her hand.
Bulcher said the woman tried to open a couple of doors to the police department.
That’s when he called for backup.
Bulcher said the woman did not make any demands. She was just talking.
Officers negotiated with her for a couple of hours, trying to convince her to drop the gun and give up, but she didn’t budge.
The officers eventually used a stun gun on the woman and took her into custody.
Bulcher commended his officers for building a rapport with the woman, keeping her calm, and ending the incident without anyone getting hurt.
“It could have been really bad but as of right now it’s a good outcome,” Bulcher said.
Police were initially planning to charge the woman, then decided not to.
She was taken to a hospital for a mental evaluation.