As a standoff at a Lawrenceville, Georgia, McDonald's approached its fourth hour, Gwinnett County Police deployed gas to get a barricaded man to surrender.
Officials with the Gwinnett County Police Department said the deployment worked and the suspect was taken into custody on charges of terroristic threats and criminal trespass.
Although no one was injured in the incident, Gwinnett police Cpl. Michele Pihera said the business was damaged and water was left overflowing in the restroom.
“When he was inside the restroom, he was destroying it and pulling pipes out of the wall,” Pihera said.
Police said at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, employees at the fast-food restaurant "possibly" saw the suspect doing drugs and asked him to leave.
SWAT Update: The call came in around 4:30am. Employees possibly saw the suspect doing drugs. He was asked to leave, but he fled to the bathroom instead. pic.twitter.com/qItRUJXkqN
— Gwinnett Police Dept (@GwinnettPd) April 3, 2018
Instead of complying with that request, authorities said, the man ran to the bathroom with a knife.
The restaurant was evacuated, and SWAT was called. Police said the suspect refused to cooperate with negotiators, which prompted officials to deploy the gas.
The man’s name and his motivations are not publicly known.
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