South Portland Police officers were dispatched to the Pine Haven Motel on Main St. in the early hours of Tuesday morning to respond to a report of a man holding a female occupant hostage at gunpoint, according to a Tuesday city press release.
After nearly four hours from the initial 1:00 a.m. dispatch, the Southern Maine SWAT team and Crisis Negotiators were able to convince the man to allow the female hostage to exit the motel room.
The woman was then taken to a nearby hospital by South Portland Police for evaluation .
Negotiators tried for another hour to convince the man to surrender peacefully.
When he refused, SWAT officers “forcibly removed the male from the motel room.”
The man, 40-year-old Kristofer C. Wingate, suffered minor injuries and was transported to a nearby hospital by South Portland Rescue.
South Portland Police detectives recovered a handgun from a search of the motel room.
Wingate will be charged with Kidnapping Class B, Creating a Police Standoff Class E, and will be subject to an extradition warrant as a Fugitive From Justice on two Texas counts of Deadly Conduct Firing a Weapon.
South Portland Police Chief Daniel Ahern commended the “professionalism of the South Portland officers who responded to this very dangerous call and the extraordinary efforts of the Crisis Negotiators and SWAT operators who collectively de-escalated a person in crisis presenting a serious threat to others.”
See South Portland’s press release on Tuesday’s incident below:
