by A standoff between authorities and a gunwoman holed up in her pickup truck on a major Virginia thoroughfare ended after about 36 hours, authorities said early Thursday.
The woman, whom the Fairfax County Police Department said he was experiencing a mental health crisiswas detained “safely”, the the agency said on Twitter. without immediately providing additional details.
The standoff on Virginia’s Richmond Freeway, just south of Washington, DC, began with an alleged kidnapping that prompted authorities to chase the van, a police spokesman said in an email.
On your social media feedthe police department provided nearly hourly reports on the situation, warning people to stay away from the area while a team of crisis negotiators tried to resolve it peacefully.
The spokesman said the incident began at approximately 11 a.m. Tuesday, after officers were asked by another law enforcement agency to conduct a wellness check on a woman who was considered a critical missing person.
Outside a motel, officers found a woman who said she had been kidnapped by another woman who had just fled, the spokesperson said.
“So we started searching the area, and that’s when one of our officers found the vehicle, took it on a chase, and ended up here.” Lt. James Curry told reporters at the scene.
At some point during his encounter with authorities, the woman in the van displayed a weapon, the spokesperson said.
The spokesman said authorities remained in “regular communication” with the woman, still armed in her truck.
The crisis team that spoke to her was made up of a mental health doctor and many police negotiators, the spokesman said.
NBC Washington reported that authorities used sirens and a megaphone Wednesday morning and ordered the woman to get out of her vehicle.
A man who identified himself as his uncle told the station that authorities asked him to record audio messages for his niece.
After the woman was taken into custody, police said the roughly 1-mile stretch of the Richmond Freeway would reopen soon.
