Situation Involving Armed Gloucester Twp. Man Ends Safely: Police

GLOUCESTER TOWNSHIP, NJ — Gloucester Township police negotiated a safe ending to a situation in which a man was threatening to use a gun Wednesday afternoon, the department announced Wednesday evening.

Police responded to a call of a man, later identified as George Hicks, threatening the caller with a gun at the Millbridge Gardens apartment complex at 1341 Blackwood-Clementon Road at about 12:46 p.m.

Arriving officers set up a perimeter, and made contact with one of Hicks’ family members, police said. The family member wasn’t in the apartment.

Specially trained officers from the Gloucester Township Police Crisis Negotiations Team responded to the scene and attempted to make contact with Hicks, police said. After several phone calls, police made contact with Hicks and began negotiating, police said.

Twenty minutes later, a woman and several children were able to safely escape the apartment, police said. The woman was taken into custody, and the children — who were unharmed — were moved to a safe location with the police department’s Community Relations Officer.

Officers then entered the apartment and began to search the premises, police said. They found Hicks hiding under a bed, and removed him from the apartment with no issues, police said.

A specially trained detective from the Juvenile Family Services Bureau was on the scene and offered services to the woman and children. The New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency was notified.

Hicks was charged with violation of a probation warrant out of Camden County. He was also arrested on several warrants out of various other jurisdictions, police said.