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Hartford man jailed after 5-hour standoff in Berrien County

Posted at 1:41 PM, Dec 22, 2018
and last updated 2018-12-22 13:44:01-05

BERRIEN COUNTY, Mich. — A 35-year-old Hartford man has been jailed after barricading himself inside a home during a five-hour standoff Friday evening.

At 4:45 p.m. Friday, a 43-year-old woman from Watervliet Township requested that Berrien County Sheriff’s Office deputies check her residence. She felt her boyfriend, who had valid warrants for his arrest, might be hiding inside there.

While the deputies were searching the residence, they discovered that Joshua Petersen, 35, of Hartford had barricaded himself inside a bedroom, claimed to possess a firearm and threatened to shoot anyone who entered the bedroom.

The deputies then secured the residence and requested additional assistance from the sheriff’s office, Watervliet Police Department, Coloma Township Police Department, Michigan State Police and Pokagon Tribal Police.

The deputies, troopers and officers from the various agencies spent the next five hours in intensive negotiations with Petersen in an attempt to get him to surrender peacefully.

After the continuous negotiations failed, the deputies, officers and troopers entered the bedroom where Petersen was barricaded.

The deputies, officers and troopers utilized a police canine and “less lethal” devices to subdue Petersen and take him into custody. After Petersen was taken into custody he was found to have self-inflicted wounds on both arms.

During the five-hour negotiation period, Petersen threw a utility knife at the officers. However, nobody was hit or injured.

At the time Petersen was subdued and taken into custody, he was holding a piece of metal that was shaped to resemble the appearance of a handgun. However, no real handguns or firearms were located inside the residence.

Nobody was injured or hurt.

Petersen was assessed at the scene by Pride Care Ambulance Service for his self-inflicted wounds and was transported to Spectrum Lakeland Hospital for treatment of his injuries.

After Petersen was treated at the hospital, he was taken to the Berrien County Jail on the following 10 charges — 2 counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, 4 counts of resisting and obstructing a police officer and 2 valid criminal bench warrants from Van Buren County for failure to appear in court.

Petersen will be arraigned in Berrien County court on the charges and also will have to appear in Van Buren County’s court system to answer the failure to appear bench warrants.