Man surrenders to police
By TIM GULLA Ledger Staff Writer tim@gaffneyledger.com

Gaffney police and Cherokee County Sheriff's Office deputies surrounded a Marion Avenue home Saturday morning after a man with a gun barricaded himself inside.

The man apparently fired four shots from a handgun inside the home before police arrived and fired one shot out the window as police began to surround the residence.

No one was injured and no property damage outside the Marion Avenue home was reported, according to an incident report. The tense situation ended after a veteran Cherokee County law enforcement officer entered the home to talk to the man and disarm him.

"He never threatened me when I went inside," said Gaffney Police Captain of Detectives Chris Skinner. "I just talked to him for a little while and asked him to give me the gun."

Before entering the home, Skinner had called the man on the telephone and asked him to open the door. The man cracked open the door as Skinner approached and let him inside.

Skinner said no charges have been filed against the man, who was taken to Upstate Carolina Medical Center immediately after the incident came to an end.

The situation began early Saturday when a family member called police after learning the man was talking of hurting himself. Officer K. J. Lancaster, who was first on the scene, wrote in a report that he knocked on the door of the home but no one answered.

A family member who was in contact with the man by telephone told the officer she had been advised the man had a gun.

Skinner was called to the scene after the gunshot was fired out the window.