HOUSTON—An 84-year-old ex-Marine was in custody Thursday morning after an all-night standoff with police.
HPD Lt. A.J. Mihalco said officers were called to the scene in the 10100 block of Amblewood Drive in southwest Houston around 1:30 a.m.
Police were told a man had gotten into an argument with his wife and fired a shot at her as she left the home.
Mihalco said the man remained inside the home and would not communicate with officers.
Believing the suspect had multiple weapons inside, Mihalco said officers surrounded the home, and the standoff began.
Officers set up their speaker system in a bid to communicate with the suspect, but they got no response.
Around 5:30 a.m., Mihalco said officers threw tear gas into the home, hoping to flush the suspect out.
It didn’t work.
"It’s kind of unusual, an 85-year-old male. We put lots of tear gas in there, and he withstood the tear gas. It seemed like it didn’t even faze him. Most of the time, they come out, but he just stood in there," Mihalco said.
Around 6 a.m., Mihalco said officers breached the door and found the man standing inside unarmed.
He was taken into custody without incident.
"He’s a pretty tough gentleman," Mihalco said.
From the back of a police cruiser, the suspect told 11 News he wasn’t affected by the tear gas.
"I was asleep most of the time, and then when I woke up, it didn’t bother me," the man said.
The man admitted that he’d been drinking before the argument started and said he’d been married "too damn long."
He said he had a number of guns in the home, but he didn’t get them out during the standoff.
"Oh hell, I had enough guns to take the whole (expletive) Army if I wanted to. But I didn’t want to," he said. "I didn’t realize they had all these police out here."
"It was just a little argument, was all," he said.
It was not clear what charges would be filed against the suspect.
Police did not release his name.
