Published: May 13, 2008 05:09 pm            

TUESDAY: More details on I-190 standoff emerging (5:08 p.m.)

BUFFALO — A day after an armed standoff that led to hours of traffic and the arrest of James Gilchriese, details are slowly emerging about the tense moments that led to the hostage situation.

Hostage Management Unit Det. Mary Gugliuzza headed up the team that negotiated with Gilchriese and said that Det. Gary Teague was talking to Gilchriese for the entire standoff despite Gilchriese’s repeated threats to stop talking.

“Det. Teague was constantly asking questions,” Gugliuzza said. “He (Gilchriese) was very angry, which obviously stemmed from the domestic situation with his girlfriend.”

Phone reports of the physical conflict between Gilchriese and girlfriend Patricia Meckley is what led police to pull the pickup over. Both Gilchriese and Meckley appeared to have been drinking prior to the dispute, and when Gilchriese was presented with the prospect of going to jail he probably panicked, Gugliuzza said.

The situation was in one of the worst possible locations, with multiple avenues for Gilchriese to escape and plenty of vantage points for bystanders to gawk and endanger themselves, said Buffalo SWAT Capt. Mark Marachiello.

“We cut down his avenues of escape with vehicles and spike strips,” Marachiello said. “We tried to limit his movement and we had snipers on the roofs of buildings to give us info on what he was doing.”

Soon after SWAT team members secured the scene, negotiators were in contact with Gilchriese by cell phone. Teague developed a rapport with Gilchriese and tried to get him to relax and surrender. But Gilchriese had other plans, demanding to speak with his girlfriend, who escaped within the first hour of the standoff, and threatening to harm police and himself, Gugliuzza said.

        

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