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Standoff ends with arrest
Robert C. Reed
A member of the Catawba County STAR Team gets ready at the scene of a standoff on 19th Avenue, NE, Wednesday.
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Published: October 9, 2008
CONOVER - A man barricaded himself in a home for an hour Wednesday afternoon and refused to communicate to police or come out of the house.
Tyrone Fitzgerald Bryce had been arrested on domestic abuse charges and placed in the Catawba County jail over the weekend. Upon his release Wednesday, the 23-year-old returned to the home of his ex-girlfriend looking for trouble.
He found it.
Bryce arrived at his ex-girlfriend's home on 19th Avenue, NE, at 2:30 p.m. and she called 911, said Coy Reid, chief deputy with the Catawba County Sheriff's Office.
Reid said the woman told dispatchers Bryce refused to let her leave the home. When sheriff's deputies responded, they surrounded the house, which distracted Bryce and allowed the woman to slip out the front door, Reid said. The woman told deputies there was a pistol in the home.
Bryce ignored the deputies' commands to come out. Though deputies were uncertain if Bryce was armed, officers did what they're trained to do when confronted with a suspect who may be armed and is refusing to come out of a building — they called for backup.
The Special Tactics and Response team and the Crisis Intervention team were dispatched to the scene, Reid said.
The STAR team is an inter-agency S.W.A.T. team of police officers from Maiden, Newton and Conover and deputies from the Catawba County Sheriff's Office.
The black-clad men wearing ballistics vests and helmets and clutching automatic weapons seemed out of place as they made their way down the street. A line of police cruisers topped with flashing lights was parked in front of the duplex.
Reid said Bryce ignored calls made to his cell phone and attempts to communicate with loud speakers.
The standoff lasted about an hour. The STAR team stormed the house and found Bryce hiding in a back closet. He was arrested for violation of a domestic violence protection order and returned to jail.
Because the crime was domestic, Bryce is being held on no bail.
When Capt. Roy Brown got word at the mobile communications center operating from the Food Lion parking lot, he was visibly relieved and said simply, "We got him. He's in custody."
A neighbor who witnessed the standoff said this wasn't the first time Bryce and his ex-girlfriend have had problems.
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