WHITE CLOUD, Mich. -- A man was arrested Thursday after allegedly threatening to blow up a home during a stand-off with Newaygo County deputies.
According to sheriff's deputies, the incident started at about 7:05 a.m. when a woman called police to say that her husband assaulted her and he was standing outside a door in their home with a machete.
"It was chaotic, there were cops all over the place, they had the army Humvee ready to ram down his door, they had sharp shooters," said Louis Villareal, a neighbor on the street.
"Really nothing like that happens in White Cloud, so when I heard he had a machete or whatever, that sounded real dangerous."
When officials arrived at the E. James Street home, the suspect was gone. However, dispatchers were notified just before 11 a.m. that the man was back at the home.
Deputies said when they attempted to make contact with the man a second time he threatened to blow the residence up. They said he filled it with propane and poured gasoline on the floor, so they pulled back and set up a perimeter.
"When I tried to go outside the cops said please stay in your house, so I just went down into the basement, I didn't know what to think," Villareal said.
Officials say they were able to get the man to come out of the house and he was arrested at about 12:35 p.m. without incident.
It was later determined the man's threats were unfounded as deputies said they found no evidence of gas our propane being released in the home.
During the stand off, police cut off power to several homes and one gas station in the area for about an hour.
The man will be identified pending formal arraignment.
FOX 17 spoke to a woman at the home claiming to be the man's wife. She said she had left the home following the initial threat from her husband and was not there at the time he returned and began making threats to police.
The woman declined to reveal her or her husband's identity to FOX 17.
The incident took place just a block away from the Newaygo County Sheriff's Office located on the same street.
