Maine State Police were attempting Monday night to persuade a man barricaded in a fourth-floor room at a Portland motel to surrender, using a bullhorn to tell “Vinny in Room 405” to come out with his empty hands in the air.
Police had evacuated guests from the upper floors of the Motel 6 on Riverside Street near Brighton Avenue on Monday afternoon and encircled the building with police cars, and blocked entrances to the hotel with tractor-trailers filled with tires and furniture. SWAT team members were on the scene Monday night and snipers had taken up positions around the building, including in the treeline and on top of nearby buildings.
“We want to hear your side of the story. We know there is always another side to the story,” the negotiator called over the bullhorn. “We know you’re tired, we know you’re scared. Do the right thing, Vinny.”
The negotiator then asked Vinny to shake the curtains or turn off the lights to let police know that he was still there. Vinny didn’t appear to respond.
A little while later, the negotiator, who identified himself as Mark, asked Vinny a second time to come out of the room, telling him that they had a warrant for his arrest.
During his appeal to the suspect, the negotiator noted that Vinny had been talking to police, but had broken off communication, turned off his cellphone and disengaged his room phone “some time ago.”
“You are not cooperating, Vinny. If you come out, we guarantee your safety,” the negotiator said over the bullhorn.
During the afternoon, managers of the motel told guests they had to leave because a guest in a fourth-floor room was armed and dangerous, said Liz Cicci, who has been renting a room there with her husband and two young children since May.
Cicci and her children were evacuated from their third-floor room at 2 p.m.
Many of the guests gathered in the parking lot of the tire shop next door Monday night to wait in hopes they could return to their rooms. Cicci said many of the guests are long-term renters, and that they have pets and medicine inside their rooms.
However, a handful of guests still appeared to be in the hotel, where a fire alarm went off shortly before 10 p.m. Earlier, the silhouette of a couple smoking could be seen in a lit-up second-floor hotel room on the other side from Room 405.
Police at the scene did not release any information about what was going on, only saying that the hotel was closed to the public because of a dangerous situation.
This story will be updated.