EAST POINT, Ga. — A tense standoff in an East Point neighborhood that lasted for more than four hours – between the SWAT team and a woman inside her home who they believed was armed – ended Tuesday night with no shots fired and the woman taken safely into custody.
Police later said they have since found out the woman “was experiencing a mental health crisis” that led to the confrontation.
Her friends and neighbors who watched it all unfold speak of how they were worried for police, and worried for the woman they said has had many troubles.
As police were leading her, handcuffed, out of her home, she suddenly put up one more fight, screaming at police, collapsing onto Center Avenue and struggling as if she thought she could free herself and run away.
Police were able to subdue her, safely – after police in other jurisdictions, across metro Atlanta and the rest of the country, have been in so many other confrontations that have ended the lives of suspects and police.
“I think they (police) were as patient as long as they could be,” said Barry Odom, a neighbor of the woman. “And I think every intent they had was not to harm her in any way, and to help her get help.”
East Point Police said the confrontation began at about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday when they got a call that a woman had “threatened a Fulton County Animal Control Investigator with a knife before going back into the home,” according to an East Point Police spokesman.
Police did not say if someone in the neighborhood had reported a problem to animal control, or if the animal control officer had gone to the house on his own.
Odom said the woman lives alone with three dogs and two cats, but he didn’t know of any problems any neighbors have had with her and her pets.
Tuesday, after police were clear from the scene, 11Alive saw posters in the windows of her home that read: “I have booby-trapped every entrance point & my pit is hungry.”
South Metro SWAT had surrounded the house, and, with East Point Police, tried to talk her out, while trying to evaluate how much of a threat she could be to herself and to them.
Odom, watching the officers with their weapons drawn and shields up for those tense four-plus hours, spoke of how he has been trying to be a friend to the woman, and how she has been trying to find mental health care, and how he has been helping her through her good days and her bad days.
“I think there is a little bit of fear that somebody’s out to get her,” Odom said. “And then that will go away. Our interactions have been always very gentle, she’s very kind, she’s a nice neighbor. She’s not out very much," except to walk her dogs.
Just before 8 p.m., SWAT broke in and apprehended her.
Odom said he was relieved no one was hurt, and heartbroken for all the fears and helplessness she has been experiencing, alone, overwhelming her.
“You just don’t know what’s happening in someone’s life,” Odom said. “And they can be quiet, and inside all this turmoil is going on, and no one will ever know. It felt like today that there wasn’t anybody that she knew or trusted or recognized. And that’s a sad, sad place.”
Police were deciding Tuesday night what charges she may now face, while doctors were evaluating what they will be able to do, now, to help her.