About 150 people were trapped in a library in Columbia, Maryland, for more than two hours February 7 as police negotiated with a wheelchair-bound gunman in the parking lot, according to the February 8 Baltimore Sun. No one was injured.
The incident began about 4 p.m. when the man, who was not publicly identified, entered the Central Library of Howard County and asked a staff member to read a letter someone had written him. After the man left, the library received a phone call that there was someone in the parking lot with a gun. The library staff then called 911.
Police responded and used an armored vehicle with a long boom to place a phone in front of the gunman. A negotiator urged him to drop the gun and assured him that no one wanted to hurt him.
The standoff ended about 6:20 p.m. when the man apparently had a seizure, police said. The gun turned out to be a toy. Criminal charges are pending the outcome of a psychological evaluation.
An earlier version of the above report was revised February 14 on the basis of information received from Jean Fox, the library’s coordinator of community outreach.