A 45-year-old man was taken for a mental health assessment after a standoff with police. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
Police arrived at a home in southern Canberra to find someone had gone to great lengths to barricade the property before a man inside allegedly engaged in a standoff with authorities that lasted for six hours.
During the chaos, a man allegedly threw a whipper snipper at police, pulled out a sword and used a flamethrower to set fire to the house.
Officers went to the home in Calwell early on Tuesday afternoon (28 October) to perform a welfare check on a 45-year-old male resident, an ACT Policing spokesperson said.
They arrived to see several physical barricades had been erected in and around the house, including steel bars, glass fragments and steel barricades.
Then, when attempting to speak to the homeowner, they reported hearing two loud bangs and smelling burnt explosive powder.
The Tactical Response Unit and negotiators were called in to help safely retrieve the man and a woman who was also inside the home.
“Police will allege later in that afternoon, while approaching the front window of the house, the man threw a whipper snipper at police and presented a sword one metre in length,” a police spokesperson said.
“Negotiations continued where police allege the man refused to release the woman from the house.”
Police forced entry into the house at around 6:30 pm when the man allegedly tried to set fire to part of the property using a flamethrower and a butane can.
The man was restrained before he was taken to hospital. The woman was physically unharmed.
Sporting a bandage over his head, he faced the ACT Magistrates Court on Wednesday (29 October), where Magistrate James Stewart said he would be taken back to hospital for a mental health assessment.
The man, who is not named during the assessment, will return to court at a later date.
He was charged with two counts of possessing an offensive weapon with intent, and single counts of forcible confinement and causing an explosion or danger to hinder or detention.
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