AUGUSTA — A police standoff Wednesday on Franklin Street ended when officers determined there was no threat.
Augusta police Sgt. Christopher Shaw said police were called to 47 Franklin St. around 1:30 p.m., after a woman called her therapist and said she needed help right away and hung up.
The therapist then called police, reporting that there may have been a domestic disturbance at the home involving the woman and a man.
When police arrived, they were met by a woman who said she had been held against her will and threatened her with a weapon, Shaw said. The woman told police she had managed to sneak out, Shaw said, but she told police the man had barricaded himself inside the home and had threatened to hurt police if they tried to get him out.
A department negotiator was called to the scene to talk to the man, and police were trying to get a search warrant, Shaw said.
The man inside declined to cooperate with police, but was calm and made no threats when police contacted him by telephone.
Officers continued talking to the woman over the next couple of hours. Her story started to change and eventually proved to be false, Shaw said. Police determined that the man had not barricaded himself in his home and was a threat neither to himself nor anyone else, Shaw said.
Police left without a confrontation and did not file any charges. “Basically, he just wanted to be left alone,” Shaw said.
Send questions/comments to the editors.