Police Use Pepper Spray To Get Barricaded Man Out Of Apartment

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL — A 42-year-old man is in custody after he barricaded himself inside an apartment in Arlington Heights early Thursday. Authorities ultimately had to use spray pepper spray through the second-floor window of the man's apartment on Campbell Street before the man finally exited the residence and was taken into custody.

The Arlington Heights Police Department was first called for a report of a domestic disturbance at the apartment at about 12:30 a.m. on Thursday, police said. A person with minor injuries was able to get out of the apartment.

But when officers instructed the man inside to leave, he refused. Instead, the man brandished a knife and refused to leave the apartment. While at the man's front door, officers tried to use a taser but the "device was ineffective" and the man closed his door and barricaded himself inside.

Northern Illinois Police Alarm System members were called to the scene and "after a prolonged effort to negotiate a peaceful resolution, a tactical solution was authorized," according to a news release from the Arlington Heights Police Department.

Officers used the pepper spray and reported the "non-lethal alternative introduced into the apartment proved effective and caused the individual to open the apartment door," according to a police department news release.

"As the suspect exited the apartment, he continued to threaten and resist the members of the NIPAS team, but was ultimately taken into custody after additional non-lethal responses to resistance were deployed," according to police.

The man, whose name has not yet been released since he has not been formally charged, was treated at the scene by Arlington Heights Fire Department paramedics and transported to the hospital for evaluation. No one else was injured in the incident.

An investigation into the incident is ongoing.