A five-hour police standoff in Bloomington ended Sunday with a 3-year-old boy being safely retrieved from a barricaded home and a man being taken into custody.
It began around 11:40 a.m. Sunday, when Bloomington Police arrived to investigate a report of someone threatening people at 1414 W. Locust St., police said. That man, Cody Powell, then barricaded himself inside the Locust Street home with his son, police said.
Police tried for several hours to coax the man out of the home safely. They frequently communicated with him through a loudspeaker.
Shortly before 5 p.m. officers announced on the loudspeaker they had a warrant for Powell's arrest. Police soon entered the home near the intersection of Locust and Hinshaw and retrieved the child. A crowd of about two dozen onlookers cheered as officers carried the boy from the home. The boy was not injured, police said.
Officers re-emerged from the home a short time later with Powell in custody. Police said Powell was taken for a medical evaluation.
A woman who said she is related to the child told GLT she saw reports of the incident on social media and decided to come to the scene.
“I was just scared, nervous. I’m just glad that it’s over, and it ended the way it did, and nobody got hurt,” she said. “I just wanted for (the child) to be fine.”
During the incident, Bloomington Police asked the public to refrain from posting live video or photos to social media. Also on scene were McLean County sheriff’s deputies and Illinois State Police.
No other suspects are being sought, police said.
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