Bristol, Va., police SWAT team called out this afternoon to Fairmount Ave.

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Nearly two hours after police surrounded his home and barricaded the 1100 block of Fairmount Avenue, Ronald Eugene Graybeal Jr. came out of the one-story white house – hands in the air and a cigarette dangling from his lips – to surrender.

That’s the best possible outcome for such a scenario, officers with the Bristol Virginia Police Department said after the standoff ended Thursday afternoon.

“This is a perfect ending for this, if there is such a thing,” Sgt. Steve Crawford said. “He came out on his own.”

And no one was injured.

“That is our ultimate goal to take care of it without anybody getting hurt,” Capt. Maynard Ratcliff said. “It came to a successful conclusion with no injuries and no property damage other than the property he damaged himself.”

Officers went to the home earlier in the day to serve Graybeal, 30, with warrants on methamphetamine-related charges, Ratcliff said.

“When detectives came to serve the warrants they came in the house and the subject threatened to blow up a propane tank,” Ratcliff said. “They immediately exited the house and they called for backup.”

Graybeal wouldn’t come out of the home, Ratcliff said.

Within a few minutes, a block of the street was secured by police officers and members of the SWAT team, and residents on either side of Graybeal’s home were evacuated.

“Anytime you have somebody barricaded in a house like that, they may have weapons,” Ratcliff said. “A relatively minor incident can escalate quickly and become dangerous to the surrounding neighborhood.”

After Graybeal’s arrest at 2:40 p.m., officers discovered an air pistol and an air rifle in the house, which apparently had been used to shoot out the glass in the home’s front storm door during the standoff.

Police officers and family members communicated with Graybeal via cell phones and eventually coaxed him out, just as the SWAT team was about to go into the home, Crawford said.

“All of it played a role,” he said. “The family talking to him, an officer talking to him who knew him. … Officers were on the phone with him when he came out of the house.”

Crawford said a peaceful surrender is what law enforcement agencies hope for in such instances, but the SWAT team was ready to go just in case.

“I think he was reluctant to go to jail,” Crawford said of the reason Graybeal wouldn’t come out. “It took him a minute to realize that’s not the way to go.”

No one was in the home with Graybeal at the time, officers said. In addition to the original drug-related charges, Graybeal now faces other charges related to the standoff, Crawford said.

In April, a standoff in Blountville, Tenn., didn’t go as smoothly. After trying to coax out a subject for about six hours, police fired teargas into the home, which then caught fire. The home was severely damaged, leaving the family without a place to live. The man officers were trying to apprehend later said he wasn’t in the home at the time of the standoff. Days later, he turned himself in.

In Bristol, Va., on Thursday, a Fairmount Avenue resident, Micah Parks, said he had just arrived home when he saw police cars everywhere in the neighborhood. He said he was sitting on his porch when officers first went into the home to talk with Graybeal. Then, after the officers rushed out of the home, Parks said, he was told he should go inside. Later, he was asked to temporarily leave his house during the standoff.

He said the neighborhood is usually pretty quiet, but he wasn’t too surprised by the day’s events.

“There’s just things that’s gone on since they’ve moved in,” he said, indicating Graybeal and the home’s other residents. “It looks like shady stuff goes on.”

Parks said the best thing he could do Thursday afternoon was go on with the rest of the day.

“What happens will happen,” he said. “And we’ll deal with it.”

arobinson@bristolnews.com
(276) 645-2531

EARLIER THURSDAY, 14 July, 2011

UPDATE: Ronald Eugene Graybeal, Jr., came out of his home around 2 p.m. and was taken away in a police cruiser. He came out and put his hands in the air and got down on the ground while police handcuffed him. SWAT team members then started to check the home.

BREAKING NEWS: The city Police Department's SWAT team has been called out this afternoon to Fairmount Avenue.

At about 1:15 p.m., Detective Sgt. Steve Crawford said police were trying to serve drug-related arrest warrents on Ronald Eugene Graybeal, Jr., who has barricaded himself inside the house on the 1100 block.

About 10 SWAT officers, strapping on bulletproof vests and other gear, are at the scene.

Crawford said they are communicating with Graybeal via his cell phone to try to talk him into coming out peacefully.

For updates on this story, check back with TriCities.com and read Friday's Bristol Herald Courier for the full story.