An all-night standoff that started Monday afternoon in a normally quiet residential neighborhood ended Tuesday morning not too long after a round of what sounded like gunfire.
According to multiple sources, police took Daryan Bryan Saunders, believed to be in his late 40s, into custody at about 10:20 a.m. after keeping police at bay for almost 24 hours, worrying nearby residents, apparently firing off random shots, and causing a neighborhood lockdown. Police had not released the charges filed against Saunders as of noon Tuesday.
The alert noted that Park Avenue was opened to traffic and that residents of Park Avenue could return to their homes.
The alert said Gillander and Gamage avenues remained closed. “Our team is working diligently to get things reopened. Residents of Gillander and Gamage should NOT attempt to return home at this time. Updates will be shared as soon as they become possible. We appreciate the cooperation of all neighborhood residents during what was a very challenging situation for all.”
The standoff built in intensity as more state tactical units arrived Tuesday morning, bolstered overnight by units from New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Police regularly used a bullhorn to try to talk the man into coming peacefully out of the house. Other tactical team members could be seen running through the neighborhoods and setting up around the house.
Just before 10 a.m., police officers and K-9s were seen weaving through backyards on Park and Grandview avenues, approaching Gillander Avenue. Other officers were seen walking down Gillander with a ramming post.
Just prior to that, a vehicle equipped with a water hose was seen near the house, and moments later a witness said police were flooding the basement of the house where the man was holed up.
Then, at 10:15 a.m., members of the tactical team were seen running toward the house, and a suspect was taken into custody very quickly after that. Attempts to talk the man out of the house, with officers using a bullhorn to talk with him, continued right up until police approached house.
State and local police were at the scene since mid-day Monday after responding to a report of someone firing a gun inside a house there.
One neighbor told she heard what she thought was a gunshot Monday, and then heard a car loudly drive off. Then, she said, she heard what she thought was a rough-sounding muffler backfiring, but wondered later if it was a second gunshot. Then, “a half-an-hour later and I see cops everywhere.”
The neighbor said police knocked on the doors of homes immediately surrounding Saunders’ house and asked people to evacuate, so she went down the street to stay with a neighbor.
Then, “literally,” she said, “the bullhorn and lights were going all night, every 45 minutes. Police did things like break down the front door, break down a window, drag things out of the house, tear gas in the upstairs, tear gas in the basement, and finally started pumping water in the basement” Tuesday morning.
According to the neighbor, the home where Saunders lives is owned by his mother, although she doesn’t live there. “It’s just a bad situation,” she said, as police were forced to “trash her house because he wouldn’t come out.”
This neighbor was aware of Saunders’ criminal history and that he’d spent some time in jail, but said he’d “always been really kind to me. Always. Really pleasant,” even though he had a reputation in the neighborhood as something of a troubled person.
Overnight, other neighbors reported they could still hear police negotiators over loudspeakers as they sought to speak with the man inside the house. The man was advised to come out of the house with his hands in the air, but remained inside.
A single loud shot was heard at about 2 a.m., according to a neighbor, followed 15 to 20 minutes later by a series of shots that “sounded like a semi-automatic” because the shots were close together.
At about 5:45 a.m. a single very loud bang that sounded like a shotgun was heard.
A neighbor said that at about 9 a.m., five men in full tactical gear with a K-9 ran through their backyard and set up nearby.
“We can hear the bullhorn from time to time,” the neighbor said. “It’s a bit muffled, but a neighbor who is in a more direct line says the cops said (through the bullhorn), ‘We’re just trying to get your attention. You have to stop shooting.'”
Electrical power to the neighborhood went out briefly around 9 a.m. but was restored shortly after.
Saunders has a number of past criminal convictions, including one for domestic violence assault in June 2016, for which he was sentenced to serve six months in jail. He was sentenced to a year in jail for a second domestic violence assault in March 2017.
Also in 2017, he was charged with tampering with a witness, informant, juror or victim on March 25, March 26, July 11 and again on July 16, and was also charged with five counts of violating conditions of release on March 24, April 2, May 1, June 1 and July 1. He was sentenced to serve seven years in prison for these charges, with all but two years and six months suspended, and was placed on probation for three years upon his release.