Man Arrested After Standoff With Deputies

A man who allegedly set a neighbor's truck on fire and fired off a gun was arrested after a six-hour standoff with sheriff's deputies. Judson Holden is charged with arson, menacing, and felon in possession of a firearm.

The incident started Sunday evening when deputies from the Washington County Sheriff's Office were called to the area of 4100 Northwest Carlton Court in the Rock Creek Community.

They were told that the 63-year-old Holden had set a neighbor's truck on fire with gasoline, had fired a shotgun off in the street, and had gone back into a house where his 95-year-old mother was.

Holden refused to respond to requests from the deputies to come out so they called the Washington County Tactical Negotiations Team (TNT), the Washington County Crisis Negotiations Unit (CNU), and Sheriff's detectives for assistance.

During the next several hours' negotiators tried to reason with Mr. Holden. At times he would come out of his house holding the shotgun and yelling obscenities. At one point while Mr. Holden was outside the house, TNT members were able to get Mr. Holden's mother out of the house safely. She was not injured during the incident.

Mr. Holden went back into his house and the decision was made to use a gas irritant to persuade him to come out. Although Mr. Holden had a gas mask, the gas proved to be too much for him and he eventually surrendered. He was taken into custody at 1:50 a.m.

Investigators are still looking into the reason Mr. Holden became violent tonight. None of the neighbors were injured. The neighbors truck received significant damage from the fire.

Photo Washington County Sheriff's Office