Armed man in Pine Plains

PINE PLAINS — Town Supervisor Gregg Pulver was in Town Hall Friday morning, April 9, when he heard sirens blaring and police cars racing toward the center of town.

“I don’t know the absolute beginning of it, but there was a fairly quick end to it,� Pulver said after he had relocated to the town’s main intersection, in front of Stissing Mountain Bank. “The Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office, as always, was on top of things and was able to cordon off the area to make sure everybody was safe and to ascertain what was going on.�

What was going on, according to Sgt. Robert Monaco of the sheriff’s office, was that a man who had reportedly told someone during a phone conversation that he was despondent and suicidal had then decided to change his physical location, all while armed with a revolver.

“A number of different agencies responded,� Monaco said, adding the New York State Police were on hand as well. “He apparently said he was going to kill himself and that was discovered by a third party over a Facebook chat. We responded to that address, but before we got there he had left in a vehicle.�

The subject hadn’t gone too far, however, and sheriff’s deputies were able to take him into custody soon thereafter. Authorities had closed down Route 199, from the traffic light at Route 82 to Poplar Avenue, during the search. The road remained closed for roughly 30 minutes; everything was “back to normal,� according to Pulver, by 10:30 a.m.

“He wasn’t a threat to the public, although he was when he left the house [with the gun],� Monaco said. “He was located on the road and taken into custody and the gun was seized. It wasn’t a criminal thing — it was a mental health thing.�