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3 hour police standoff ends peacefully

Posted at 10:34 PM, Aug 28, 2016
and last updated 2016-08-28 23:53:10-04
A police standoff ends in south Omaha peacefully. 
 
The neighborhood was rattled by a large police presence for several hours.
 
A man with a red shirt was arrested without incident at about 6:30 p.m. Sunday after a standoff involving swat teams, a sniper, the police department, fire department and EMS along 46th between Center and Francis.
 
The three hour standoff happened in an area neighbors describe as peaceful.
 
Although the 911 call was made for a man making suicidal threats, Officer Michael Pecha says the suspect possibly made homicidal threats before he was arrested.
 
Pecha says the scene was challenging. 
 
"Dealing with a large area of evacuating people in the area, making sure they're safe and trying to figure out the mindset of the person involved and getting the negotiator to build a rapport with that person and try to talk them into a peaceful resolution," Pecha said. 
 
More than one weapon was recovered from a duplex after the suspect was arrested.
 
The suspect is undergoing a mental evaluation at Creighton.
 
Bill Ridley lives across the street from where the standoff happened and says the most commotion he's seen in the 15 years before Sunday was a traffic stop.
 
"I’m very shocked,” Ridley said. “This is a pretty peaceful, quiet neighborhood. To find out somebody had weapons right across the street.”
 
Ridley says the suspect of Sunday’s standoff would often wave to him and his family across the street.
 
"I’ll keep a closer eye on him, I say that,” Ridley said. “I'll keep a closer eye on what happens across the street; knowing now that they found guns and stuff like that.” 
 
Up the street, neighbor Anne Race saw the situation unfold.
 
“Definitely uncharacteristic,” Race said. “Nothing like this I've ever seen in my life." 
 
Like Ridley, Race says the standoff changes her perception of the neighborhood.
 
"I feel more nervous than I did during the time of it,” Race said. “Maybe it was because it almost felt like a movie, like it wasn't believable. There were so many things like what you see on television. Now I'm more worked up than I was when it was really going on." 
 
The Omaha Police Department says it’s an ongoing investigation.
 
While several neighbors say the suspect lived in the duplex with family, OPD wouldn't confirm these details.
 
There were no injuries.