STANDOFF IN FRANKLIN COUNTY

Standoff in Franklin County

Georgia, Vermont - September 4, 2005

At around six-thirty Sunday night, authorities from around Franklin County were called to a home on Guilder Lane in Georgia to the report of a domestic dispute.

"I was outside over here talking on the phone and I heard a bunch of arguing out back over here so I happened to look over the fence and a bunch of people arguing and next thing I know a couple of sheriffs show-up and stateys," said Steve Rabideau, who witnessed the standoff.

"We just got done eating dinner and we were outside on the porch," said another witness, Danielle Ryea. "We could hear all the hollering. So, we looked over the fence and that's when we saw everything happening."

Once police arrived on scene, the suspect barricaded himself inside his home.

He told police he wouldn't be taken alive -- telling them he had doused his home with gasoline. He threatened to burn it down. This prompted the evacuation of nearby homes.

After an hour of negotiations with the state police, the man finally emerged from the house and he was armed.

"The accused came out of the garage entrance carrying a four-foot sword," said Sgt. Michael Aamodt of the Vt. State Police. "I advised him to drop it at which point he threw it to the ground and he kept walking towards me with a gas mask so I couldn't see his face. He kept coming towards me and pulled a dagger approximately a foot long out of his pants and I told him to drop it. He came closer, took his shirt off, and then taken into custody."

No one was injured during the standoff. The name of the suspect has not been released.