Cary standoff locks schools down

Two Cary-area schools were put on lockdown Monday afternoon during a police standoff that started when a man holed himself up inside his home after firing a gun at a woman, authorities said.

Police responded to a home on the 1000 block of Nighthawk Way just before noon for a possible domestic battery and found the 31-year-old Chicago woman, who told police she had been struck by the man inside the house.

The woman also told police the man had fired a handgun in her direction, and the bullet exited through a back window of the home. Officers spotted the bullet hole in a back window and immediately told residents to stay in their homes while a perimeter was set up, according to police.

Police tried to make contact with the man, but he refused to answer the door or the phone.

Frank M. Vantrepotte, 35, eventually exited the house sometime after 3 p.m. when one of his friends arrived at the scene and convinced him to surrender, police said. The friend had been speaking to Vantrepotte on a cellphone during the standoff.

Three Oaks Elementary School and Cary Junior High School both were put on lockdown right before the usual dismissal time and streets near the residence were closed off, according to police.

Vantrepotte was charged with reckless discharge of a firearm, but more charges are possible, according to police. A judge set Vantrepotte’s bail at $10,000.

The McHenry County sheriff’s Tactical Response Team assisted Cary Police and the Illinois State Police.