Man threatens ex; jailed after standoff

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - A 24-year-old man was arrested following a four-hour standoff in which he allegedly held his recently separated girlfriend against her will inside a Grand Rapids apartment home.

Two other people in the residence escaped before police arrived and were the ones who called 911 around 4:30 a.m. They said the knife-wielding man had assaulted them and was threatening his on-again-off-again girlfriend.

Police surrounded the residence in the 700 block of Garfield Avenue NW in Grand Rapids, closed nearby streets, brought more than a dozen cruisers to the scene and set up a mobile command center. Police also went door-to-door to inform neighbors about the situation.

24 Hour News 8 at the scene heard officers using a bullhorn to try and communicate with the suspect, but he refused to cooperate with negotiators.

Authorities broke out a window in the home and threw in a police phone so they could talk to the suspect or the woman. Authorities were eventually able to talk to the woman.

Consumers Energy cut the power to the house around 8:50 a.m., around the same time officers entered the home and brought the woman outside. She was put in handcuffs and into a police cruiser for questioning.

Police found the suspect hiding in a closet and removed him in handcuffs from the home just after 9 a.m. He was taken to jail on two counts of felonious assault.

24 Hour News 8 talked to the woman's cousin, Yolanda Beck, who said the victim was not hurt.

"I'm very happy with how this went," Grand Rapids Police Captain Dan Savage said. "I don't know if I could put a rating on it -- safe resolution, no injuries, suspect in custody. I would call that a safe resolution."

Beck said the suspect is Alonzo Gamble and that the couple broke up Thursday and had been dating for about a year.

"This is shocking to me. He usually is this fun, laughable guy. He is always helping out somebody, and I just can't believe this," Beck said.

24 Hour News 8 found police records that connect Gamble as being the suspect. Court documents list Gamble and his ex-girlfriend as co-tenants where the incident occurred.

Court documents also show Gamble's criminal history dating back to 2003 and including charges of assault and battery, domestic violence, carrying a concealed weapon, use of marijuana, attempt delivery of a controlled substance, trespassing, illegal entry and failure to obey a lawful order of a police officer.