Police said a man came out of a home in Bellevue peacefully, ending a barricade situation.
The incident had been ongoing in the 600 block of Hicks Road, beginning just after 10 a.m. Sunday.
The sound of a distraction device echoed through the neighborhood around 2 p.m.
"And the purpose for those was to get his attention, and it worked," Sergeant Brian Gottschall said.
After nearly four hours, crisis negotiators with the SWAT team established contact. Neighbors breathed a sigh of relief.
"I actually started crying," said Robbie Lewis. "I thought he had shot himself, so I started crying but then it happened again and someone said they were some type of bombs or something that tries to force them out of the house, but I don't think it forced him out because we continued to hear them talk to him outside."
Police said he came out on the porch to smoke a cigarette.
"And when he came out, he sat on the top of the step, SWAT moved up," Gottschall said.
We captured the moment on video, and you can see the man was not harmed.
"It was kind of a shock to come to this, but my heart's elated now that he's out and I hope he gets help," Lewis said.
Lewis said her neighbor had been going through some tough times.
Instead of going to jail, the distraught individual was brought by Metro Police to a VA Hospital.
"Police arrive on the scene and they don't want to charge them with a crime, they want to get them mental health help," Michael Randolph said. "Their family wants to get them mental health help."
Randolph is a crisis supervisor at Mental Health Cooperative. He speaks to officers in training about how to handle a mental health crisis.
"So we're really trying to connect the family and the person in crisis with what they need to truly get better, which would involve them not going to jail and instead maybe going to a hospital or getting back on medication, that sort of thing," Randolph said.
So as the SWAT team went home for the day, they can rest easy.
"And again we are here to protect life. Be it the life of person who wants to kill himself or somebody else," Gottschall said.
#breaking The man who was barricaded in the home is okay. A SWAT team member confirms he came out peacefully, ending a 4 hour standoff @NC5pic.twitter.com/e5ct8scDkr
— Alexandra Koehn (@NC5_AKoehn) September 17, 2017
If you live in Davidson County and are suffering from suicidal thoughts you can call the mental health cooperative at 615-726-0125.
If you are outside of Davidson County and live in the state of Tennessee, people struggling with a mental health crisis can call 855-274-7471.
#breaking Two loud bangs just echoed through the neighborhood. Officers with loud speakers are trying to coax the man out of his home @NC5pic.twitter.com/OIVcD17ezv
— Alexandra Koehn (@NC5_AKoehn) September 17, 2017
