LIGONIER, Pa. — A man was arrested and charged after an hours-long standoff with police in Ligonier Township. Ligonier Valley Police, in cooperation with Westmoreland County District Attorney’s Office criminal charges were announced Monday.
According to a press release, Thomas Crary, 47, is charged with aggravated assault, strangulation, simple assault and recklessly endangering another person.
Police responded to the area of Terrace Road at 4:15 p.m. on Sunday for a report of a domestic dispute with injuries.
When crews arrived on scene, the victim told officers she was involved in a physical domestic dispute with Crary. She claimed Crary punched her multiple times in the face, grabbed her and tried to throw her over a railing from the second floor. She also told police that she lost consciousness after Crary allegedly strangled her.
Ligonier Valley Police helped the victim get out of the home safely.
Officers tried to contact Crary but were not able to. They secured the scene and requested State Police’s Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) to respond due to the nature of the incident and Crary’s access to firearms.
“There was some information provided by the wife about his past military history, and there were a lot of firearms in the residence from what we understood,” said Ligonier Valley Police Chief Mike Matrunics. “Actually there were a few grenades in there as well that were ultimately found out to be not live.”
One neighbor told Channel 11′s Andrew Havranek that he and his family left for a running event in Latrobe before the incident happened, and came back late Monday morning.
“We got a call from our neighbor an hour later that there were police all around the area, and better find somewhere else to go. We stayed somewhere else till the morning,” said Zac Keslar.
SERT used flash bangs, sirens and verbal commands over a loudspeaker to get a response from Crary. Their efforts were only successful once they made contact around midnight. Police say Crary surrendered around 1:30 a.m.
Keslar is glad police were able to safely handle the situation.
“Thank you very much to them for keeping us without significant incident,” Keslar said.
Crary was arraigned Monday morning and is being held in the Westmoreland County Prison without bail.
He’s due in court on May 10.
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