ROME -- A man is in jail after a more than 14 hour standoff with state police. Now, state police said the suspect may have been high on bath salts.
State police remained outside the house on North Rome Road in Bradford County. Less than 24 hours earlier, troopers arrested Steven Brown, the man who lives there.
State police said the situation got its start when Brown drove a woman to the Dandy Mart in Rome. While Brown waited in the car, she went inside. Troopers said she bought something, and told an employee that she was being held against her will. After she and Brown drove away, the employee called 911. Police went to the house, and that is when the 14 hour standoff began.
"Pretty soon they started talking to him saying to come out of the house. It pretty much didn't change the rest of the day. At night it started to get a little more serious," said Aaron Bullock.
Troopers said the woman escaped from the house and is okay. Aaron Bullock and his family live across the road. They watched the situation unfold. Bullock does not know Steven Brown well, but said he never expected to see a standoff.
"He seemed okay when I talked to him. I don't really know him that well. He kept to himself," said Bullock.
The standoff ended at 11:30 p.m. Brown was arrested and taken to a hospital. His neighbors said it was like something from a movie, certainly nothing they've ever seen around there.
"It was pretty surprising that something like that would happen around here. It's not something that we normally have to deal with on a day-to-day basis," said Sam Bullock.
State police believe Brown may have been on bath salts at the time of the incident. He is locked up on charges including kidnapping and assault.