JONESBORO, Ga. -- It took more than four hours and multiple gas cannisters to bring peaceful resolution to a standoff, Tuesday, during which a suspect fired nearly 20 shots at officers.
The incident all began at the South Side Inn on Old Dixie Road near Jonesboro when a Clayton County Police Department officer on patrol noticed a suspicious vehicle in the parking lot. Research on the tag revealed that the vehicle had been reported stolen out of Texas.
Soon officers began the process of recovering the vehicle. But that's when police said the suspect, 31-year-old Timothy Randall Monroe, exited his room and locked the doors with a key fob. That got the attention of officers on the scene who began asking Monroe questions about the status of the vehicle. Instead of answering them, officers said he went back into his room. Officers followed but soon retreated when they noticed guns in the room with him as they passed the window.
"To maintain a peaceful environment, the officers moved away from Monroe’s hotel door and began negotiating with him in an attempt to get him to surrender," the department said in a statement.
Eventually, warrants were secured and, after more than an hour of attempted negotiations, SWAT officers were called in - but the standoff was far from over. During their time attempting to get Monroe to surrender, officers used gas agents on multiple occasions.
"Shortly after each deployment of gas, Monroe fired a series of gunshots at law enforcement personnel on the scene reinforcing his refusal to surrender," department officials said.
Over the course of the standoff, Monroe allegedly fired 19 "sporadic" shots at officers. They didn't hit officers but did end up damaging a police car and a robot.
Officers were finally able to convince the suspect to surrender around 2:15 p.m. bringing the more than four our standoff to a close.
Monroe now faces several charges including two counts of theft - bringing stolen property into the state, one count of obstruction, two counts of interference with government property (for the robot and vehicle damage), and 19 counts of aggravated assault.
After the ordeal, police chief Joseph Woodall commended the officers for defusing a volatile situation without injury or loss of life. Woodall also thanked the Clayton County Sheriff's Office for their assistance.
