Courtland Street Hostage Standoff Leaves Suspect Dead, Officer Wounded

Police received a call of a domestic incident involving a man “waving a gun around” inside his Courtland Street home shortly after 5:30 p.m. Thursday evening.

When it was over less than two hours later, the suspect lay dead by a sniper’s bullet, the neighborhood evacuated, and an officer wounded as a tense hostage standoff turned deadly.

“The female caller reported that her emotionally disturbed husband was waving a gun around inside the house,” said Lt. Christopher Davis of the Manchester Police Department. “The caller had barricaded herself in one of the bedrooms. When our officers arrived on scene, they heard some shots from inside the house. They were fearful that he was possibly shooting his family, because there were two children inside the house as well.”

Davis declined to give the identity of the suspect, but property records list the 13 Courtland St. residence where the incident occurred as owned by Edmanuel and Marianella Reyes. Manchester Memorial Hospital staff confirmed Thursday evening that Marianella Reyes and her two sons had been evaluated and released by the hospital after the incident.

Police were on the phone with Reyes and his wife throughout most of the hour-long standoff, Davis said, and eventually convinced him to release his wife and children from the home.

“They tried to negotiate with him for an extended period of time,” Davis said. “He continually let off rounds outside the house.”

Davis said a police sniper shot and killed the suspect in the doorway of his home after the hostages had been released at about 7:15 p.m.

The initial call came in just as many were returning home from work, and police quickly evacuated the neighborhood and established a perimeter around the home. Many residents of the neighborhood arrived home to find their street blocked off and swarming with police, while the police evacuated others from their homes.

Susan McCauley, who lived behind the Reyes on Westwood Street, said that police "physically removed" her from her home around 6 p.m. Thursday.

McCauley said that she had often heard her neighbors fighting from her backyard, but that she did not know them or their children.

Manchester Police Officer , who was among the first responders to the incident, was shot in the shoulder while trying to enter the home, but Davis said the injury was not serious. Beeler, the head coach of the Fermi High School football team in Enfield, was treated at Hartford Hospital and released Thursday evening.

Elizabeth Rodriguez, who lives on Courtland Street several houses down from the Reyes, said she was driving home from work and on the phone with her sister-in-law, who also lives on Courtland Street and was home at the time, when she heard shots ringing out in the background. Rodriguez said she would often see Edmanuel Reyes around the neighborhood but that he had never caused a problem before.

Davis said police had never previously been called to 13 Courtland St.

Manchester Mayor Louis Spadaccini said Fire Chief Robert Bycholski alerted him to the incident at about 6 p.m., and that he arrived on the scene shortly thereafter. Spadaccini said he was pleased and impressed by the police department's rapid response to the situation and how quickly they secured the area.

"It's always disturbing when something like this happens at home but the police did an excellent job responding to this situation and bringing it under control and bringing a fairly prompt end to the shooting,” Spadaccini said.

When asked whether Manchester residents should feel safe after the , Spadaccini replied, "absolutely they should."

"The response to this was rapid, it was done in a way that ensured the safety of the surrounding residents,” Spadaccini said. “We were able to respond quickly to get the situation under control, get the people out of harm’s way... I think it was coordinated very effectively and I think people were safe."

Courtland Street and many of the surrounding streets were still cordoned off by police early Friday morning as officers continued to investigate the incident.

Davis said he did not know what prompted the incident.