AUBURN — A standoff on Turner Street ended peacefully Monday when police arrested a man who had barricaded himself in his house.
Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal An unidentified Auburn Police Officer covers the front of 302 Turner Street while Philip Blais barracades himself inside Monday afternoon.
Police were called to 302 Turner St. shortly after 1 p.m. by a neighbor.
When police arrived, Philip Blais, 29, ran from the driveway back into the house, saying he was going to get a gun.
Police tried to talk to Blais, but he refused and gestured at police through a window, according to police radio communications. Calls to his cell phone went to voice-mail, according to radio traffic.
Police surrounded the house, guns drawn, ducking as they ran past first-floor windows. They tried to enter the front door, but it was locked. All of the doors had been barricaded with chairs.
Shortly after 1:30 p.m., officer James Phillips broke down a door at the back of the building. He and an Androscoggin County Sheriff's Department deputy chased Blais upstairs, where they captured him as he tried to hide in a closet, Lt. Michael Lemay said. Police escorted Blais, his hands cuffed behind his back, to a waiting police cruiser parked on Turner Street.
"We were concerned he might have a weapon," Chief Phillip Crowell Jr. said. Police searched the home for firearms. Police found one round on Blais and a box of ammunition that appeared to belong to a 9-mm gun, Lemay said.
Blais was arrested for domestic violence assault and was expected to be charged on that offense and possibly others, Lemay said. Blais also would be cited for creating a standoff, a civil violation.
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