UPDATED: Charges to be Filed in Standoff

Canonsburg police Chief R.T. Bell said officers tried for hours to make contact with a 59-year-old borough man who had barricaded himself in the First Street home he shares with his mother after the woman attempted to have him committed to a psychiatric ward on Wednesday.

Bell said police were called to 1206 First St. after county protective services and mental health services officials arrived to help facilitate his commitment to Washington Hospital’s psychiatric ward.

On Tuesday, Bell said, the protective services worker who routinely visited the woman said the man, identified as Lawrence Warabow, had become aggressive, and that the official had contacted mental health services then to plan the commitment.

But when the county workers and Warabow’s mother attempted to speak with the man about being transported to Washington Hospital, he became aggressive – shoving one of the women toward the door and screaming at them to get out of the house or he would “kill somebody.”

The two county workers and Warabow’s mother, who has not been identified, left the home, and he slammed the door behind them, the police chief said.

Bell said that when police arrived, they learned that there were three rifles in the home.

That’s when he said police tried to make contact.

First, he called the man’s home phone and left messages. They went unreturned. Then he pulled a police vehicle into the driveway and used the public address system to get the man’s attention. When that didn’t work, officers then turned on the siren for a few minutes to no avail.

“That’s when things get tricky,” Bell said, explaining that police knew only that the man had made threats, had access to weapons and was reported as having a mental illness.

The Washington County CERT team was contacted, county emergency services set up a command post on nearby Hooks Lane, and local police and fire departments restricted traffic there and on portions of First Street.

After that team attempted to make contact for several hours, Bell said its members simultaneously forced entry into an upstairs and downstairs door.

Warabow was discovered downstairs, taken into custody around 3:15 p.m. and was transported to Washington Hospital’s psychiatric ward, the police chief said.

North Strabane, Cecil Township and the Pennsylvania State Police also responded, Bell said.