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No charges against Wheaton man after standoff

No charges will be filed against a 28-year-old Wheaton man who held police at bay for almost eight hours Monday morning while barricaded inside his house on East Liberty Drive near President and Williston streets, authorities said.

The man, who police said they will not identify, surrendered around 10 a.m. No injuries were reported.

Police said they responded at 2:25 a.m. to a report of a suicidal man who had barricaded himself in the residence on the 1000 block of East Liberty.

Shortly after they arrived, police said the man's parents left the house. Chief Mark Field said no one was being held hostage or against their will during the standoff and the parents "left the home under their own volition."

A man who answered the door and a woman who answered a phone at the house after the man was taken into custody declined to comment.

A neighbor living three houses down, who asked not to be identified by name, said she "is very friendly with the mother" and called the family "lovely people"

"I was up at 3 a.m., checking the Facebook like I always do, and I heard a really loud bang come from that direction. I said, 'That sounded like someone shooting a gun,'" she said. "I got up and looked around but I didn't see anything out of the ordinary so I went back to the Internet. Only later did I even notice the police activity."

Field said no gunshots were fired, but weapons were found in the home - although he would not say what kind.

President Street resident Todd Eisele said he heard commotion around 2:30 a.m. but went back to sleep after getting information from police.

"As much presence as they had going around here, they didn't seem to be too overly concerned when I walked out of the house. They weren't telling me to get back in my house or anything," he said. "They made it sound like it was pretty isolated."

Carolyn Barnes, who lives two houses down from the residence where the man barricaded himself, said she and her husband saw a police officer wearing all black carrying a gun in her neighbor's backyard around 6 a.m.

"We didn't really know what was going on," she said. "We were kind of confused."

Around 8:30 a.m., two police officers came to their door and told them to leave. Other homes in the immediate area also were evacuated, police said.

Brian Millett, who lives on President Street, said he didn't notice anything until he woke Monday morning and found the street blocked off. He said it appeared police were using Lowell Elementary School as a staging ground. When he heard helicopters overhead he started feeling concerned about safety.

"It's a little daunting to see full uniform police, with helmets and riot gear, walking by your house," he said. "It's pretty crazy."

Field said the heavy police presence was a "precautionary safety measure."

Police said the man stayed in the house throughout the standoff, although the arrest took place in a neighbor's yard. Two police officers escorted five people back into the home around 10:40 a.m.

  A police officer in tactical gear takes up a position near the intersection of Liberty Drive and Williston Street in Wheaton. A police standoff with a barricaded man ended peacefully about 10 a.m. Monday. Mark Black/mblack@dailyherald.com
  DuPage County Sheriff's Department tactical officers move in to take a man into custody Monday after a barricade situation on Liberty Drive in Wheaton. Mark Black/mblack@dailyherald.com
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