A local man pointed an unloaded handgun at two Wallingford police officers during a midday standoff on Schoolhouse Road Friday that ended in the suspect arrested on multiple criminal charges and hospitalized after being subdued with a Taser.
Two Wallingford officers were initially dispatched at 12:05 p.m. to 69 Schoolhouse Road after a woman in the house called 911 to report that her son was despondent, according to a news release from Public Information Officer Lt. Marc Mikulski.
The woman said she feared her son, 23-year-old Michael McCormack, might attempt to harm himself, the release detailed. After meeting with the officers, McCormack initially agreed to be taken to the hospital for an evaluation, but then ran from police inside the home to obtain a handgun, Mikulski said.
Police later determined that the weapon was illegally purchased and that it was unloaded.
McCormack pointed the gun at the two officers while stationing himself in the basement of the home, the news release said. The officers then called for additional backup saying they were in a standoff with an armed suspect. Wallingford Patch readers reported on our Facebook page they had heard multiple police cars with sirens driving down Route 5 around the same time as this incident.
Additional responding officers immediately shut off traffic on Schoolhouse Road and set up a perimeter around the home. Cook Hill Elementary School, less than a mile away, also went into precautionary lockdown, officials said.
A police negotiator then came into the Schoolhouse Road home and began to talk to McCormack from the top of the basement stairs. The negotiator convinced McCormack to lower the gun but as he was being taken into custody the suspect then violently resisted and fought the officers, police said. The officers then used a Taser to subdue McCormack before being able to arrest him, police said.
McCormack was taken via the Wallingford Fire Department Ambulance to Yale New Haven Hospital for an evaluation. He is still at the hospital as of Friday evening although he remains in police custody.
Meanwhile, a Wallingford officer sustained a minor injury to one of his hands during the altercation. He was evaluated at MidState Medical Center in Meriden and released. The lockdown at Cook Hill lasted roughly a half hour. No one else was injured.
McCormack faces charges of first-degree unlawful restraint, first-degree reckless endangerment, first-degree threatening, interfering with a police officer, a breach of peace and illegal transfer of a firearm. He is being held on a $150,000 bond.
Police did not give a court date, although suspects with high bonds are typically arraigned on the next available court date, which would be Tuesday.
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