Standoff involving father, 9-year-old daughter, ends peacefully: Owen Sound police

Police in Owen Sound negotiated the safe release of a nine-year-old girl, and the “peaceful surrender” of a father who’d barricaded himself inside a smoking apartment early Sunday morning.

The standoff began around 12:10 a.m., when emergency services responded to an apartment building at 944 2nd Avenue East to reports of smoke filling a hallway.

Owen Sound police say the smoke was coming from one of the apartments.

A man inside the apartment became “very unco-operative” with first responders, and police say he barricaded himself inside the unit with his nine-year-old daughter and weapons.

Smoke bombs were reportedly thrown at officers through the course of a nearly five-hour stand-off, in which police were able to negotiate the safe release of the young girl and evacuate the apartment, as well as neighbouring buildings.

Grey Bruce OPP’s Emergency Response Team, and Tactics and Rescue Unit were called in to help.

Police say the suspect surrendered shortly before 5 a.m., and has been charged with a slew of offences including arson, uttering threats, mischief, and possession of weapons for a dangerous purpose.

He appeared in an Owen Sound courtroom on Sunday morning.

Owen Sound Police are thanking agencies, such as Victim Services and the Red Cross, that came to help out.