Alliance police say a 6-½-hour standoff at a house treated as a hostage situation ended peacefully shortly after midnight this morning when a mother who’d been holding her teenage son left a house and surrendered.
Details, including charges and the names of the woman and her son, are expected to be released later today.
Alliance Police Sergeant Tim Peterson told KNEB News that Nebraska State Patrol negotiators had worked with the woman for several hours before convincing her to surrender. The State Patrol SWAT team was on the scene, but no shorts were fired.
Sgt Peterson says the incident began a little before 5:30 when officers were called to make a welfare check at a residence in a mobile home park. Officers were greeted at the door by the woman, who pointed a gun at them and threatened to fire.
The officers retreated and called for backup, with the Nebraska State Patrol, Nebraska Game and Parks Conservation Officers, and sheriff’s deputies from Box Butte,Scotts Bluff, and Garden Counties responding.
Peterson says the woman had her child in the residence, so the incident was handled as a hostage situation.
Alliance dispatchers initiated the Code Red alert system shortly after 6:00 with an advisory to shelter in place, aiming for just the area around the residence, but Peterson says it accidentally went citywide.
The alert was reissued around 8:40, shrinking the coverage area and advising the public to stay clear of the area.