Credit: DaytonDailyNews
Officers and the city’s Tactical Response Team surrounded a house in the 600 block of Baltimore Street in Middletown, with temperatures approaching triple digits, trying to get Duhamel to surrender.
Duhamel was in a standoff beginning at 9:15 p.m. Wednesday after residents in a home in the 7300 block of Mentz Avenue in Franklin Twp. said he was inside and threatening them with a gun. When law enforcement entered the home, Duhamel had eluded them during the commotion and fireworks surrounding the Fourth of July holiday.
Early Thursday, the Warren County Sheriff’s Office put out a description of Duhamel and that he could be armed and that the public should call 911 if they see him.
Duhamel, who is known to law enforcement, was wanted for aggravated menacing, inducing panic, and violation of a temporary protection order, deputies said.
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Middletown Police Chief Rodney Muterspaw said an officer spotted Duhamel shortly before 1 p.m. in Middletown, and that’s when the suspect ran inside the Baltimore Street house.
“After he ran inside, officers and neighbors said they heard what sounded like a gunshot,” Muterspaw said.
As a precaution, officers cleared residents from four adjacent houses.
“We had the SWAT team come out,” the chief said. “We were able to deploy gas and get in there and get him out safely.”
He was taken into custody about 3 p.m.
Muterspaw said Duhamel was complaining of a back injury and was taken to Atrium Medical Center, a hospital in Middletown, to be treated.
Muterspaw said he was not sure what Duhamel would face, nor when he would be turned over to Warren County.
Three people yelling at police during the incident, including Duhamel’s brother, were arrested for misconduct at an emergency, which is a misdemeanor, Muterspaw said.
During the standoff, neighbors watched from their front porches and from the taped off area as the incident unfolded. They also recorded events on smartphones.
Muterspaw said he wishes people would not post live videos of police trying get a suspect out safely from a building, or yell at police.
“We’d appreciate no one using social media live video, as this is a standoff situation” according to the post.
“You’ve got to be patient on those things, even if it’s a family member,” Muterpaw said. “Let us do our job and get him out of there.”
During the standoff, a woman identified as Duhamel’s mother from the taped off area at Woodlawn Avenue and Baltimore Street kept calling for him to come out and said, “Mommy loves you.”
“This is heartbreaking to see his family begging for him to come out,” said Dlois Mabe, who watched the incident from her front porch.
Other residents, and Muterspaw, said the house also was a known drug house.
