Tear gas ends police standoff in Annapolis

Annapolis police evacuated several townhouses yesterday and shot tear gas into one to end a three-hour standoff with an armed man, a department spokesman said.

Juan Perez, 22, of the 300 block of Center St., was charged with reckless endangerment and several gun violations, said Officer Kevin Freeman. He was being held on $550,000 bail at the Jennifer Road Detention Center.

A woman called police just before 2 a.m. to report that a bullet had been fired through her wall from an adjacent house in the first block of Pleasant Street, which is in the Clay Street area.

Officers who arrived saw a man with a shotgun standing outside the house next to the caller's, Freeman said. The man went inside, and a police negotiator persuaded him to release six adults and a 4-year-old girl, the officer said.

Police discharged at least one canister of tear gas, entered the house and arrested the man without incident, Freeman said. They recovered a shotgun and several other weapons from the house, he said.

Annapolis police could not say how often they use tear gas.