Man taken into custody following armed standoff at Appleton apartment on East Northland Avenue
APPLETON – Appleton police took a man into custody after an armed standoff Wednesday afternoon.
Appleton police established a perimeter around an apartment complex in the 1200 block of East Northland Avenue on Wednesday afternoon and were warning people to stay away from the area. East Northland Avenue was closed at Meade Street to Ballard Road.
The Appleton Police Department issued a news release around 6:30 p.m. that after continued discussion between the man and crisis negotiators, he left the apartment building. He was taken into police custody, and taken to a hospital for care, police said.
Assistant Appleton Police Chief Todd Freeman told media Wednesday afternoon that police were sent for a welfare check just before midnight Tuesday for a 41-year-old Appleton man who was intoxicated and left his home with a handgun.
Officers determined the man headed to northern Wisconsin, where local police agencies contacted him by phone.
Shortly after 1 p.m. Wednesday, the man returned to his apartment and officers were called for reports that he was suicidal, according to the police department. The man still appeared to be intoxicated and had a gun. When officers arrived on scene, the man made threats to them, which changed the police response from a welfare check to a crime, Freeman said in the news conference, according to a livestream video of the news conference from WFRV-TV.
Freeman also said police evacuated other occupants of the apartment complex "to the best of our ability."
Contact Kelli Arseneau at (920) 213-3721 or karseneau@gannett.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @ArseneauKelli.
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Standoff with Appleton police ends at Northland Avenue apartment
