Standoff ends without incident after SWAT team enters house

TEXARKANA, Texas — A three-hour standoff at a home on Jerome Street ended about 1o:30 p.m. Thursday when the Texarkana SWAT team entered the residence through a window.

Max Kelly, 31, had told police he had been stabbed and also that he had a weapon. However, police quickly learned neither of those things was true, said Shawn Vaughn, spokesman for the Texarkana Texas Police Department. Kelly was taken into custody on a felony probation violation warrant.

Two people were inside the house with Kelly and one of them was treated for minor injuries, according to police.

Police received a 911 call at 7:30 p.m. and were told that Kelly was fighting with someone and had been stabbed. However, Kelly allegedly barricaded himself in the house when officers arrived and refused to come out. He yelled out the window to officers that he was armed with a rifle and that an elderly female relative also inside the house had been injured.

“Due to this very volatile and dangerous situation, the decision was made to activate the SWAT Team,” Vaughn said.

Negotiators worked for almost three hours to try to convince Kelly to come out, but he repeatedly refused. It eventually became obvious that those efforts were becoming increasingly fruitless, Vaughn said.

At 10:30 p.m., members of the SWAT team broke out a front window and entered the house. After Kelly was taken into custody without further incident, police discovered that he had neither been stabbed as he initially claimed nor had a weapon.

Kelly was booked into the Bi-State Justice Center jail on a felony probation violation warrant.

The two people in the house with Kelly were checked out by EMS at the scene. One of them was taken to a local hospital with reportedly minor injuries. The elderly relative wasn’t injured and decided to go somewhere else for the night.