Published: May 14, 2008 01:21 am      

I-190 STANDOFF: Details emerging about tense incident

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

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

“Detective 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 over the pickup the two were traveling in south on I-190. 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 to safety within the first hour of the standoff, and threatening to harm police and himself, Gugliuzza said.

“We’d coach her on what to say, to ‘just tell him you love him, you care for him and you want him to be safe,’ ” Gugliuzza said.

During those negotiations, Gilchriese agreed to surrender himself to an ambulance, but the sticking point was keeping his gun. Gilchriese wanted to walk to the ambulance with the weapon, but police knew letting him walk out in the open with a gun wasn’t a good idea for anyone involved, Gugliuzza said.

The reasoning that led Gilchriese to fixate on where his gun would be sent after he surrendered is a typical reaction for someone in his situation, Marachiello said.

“Would-be hostage-takers, when the thing is about to end and they’re going to surrender, have to retain control,” Marachiello said. “Something like, ‘I’ll surrender, but only if you send my gun here.’ It’s a last-ditch effort to take control and make us do this one more thing before they come in.”

As time wore on, Gilchriese began to get tired, and his phone’s battery started to die. As he entered his truck to plug in his phone, he eventually set the gun down. That was the opening SWAT officers were looking for, and as a discussed resolution became less and less likely, they decided to take the opportunity, Marachiello said.

Police sent the ambulance in, as they had discussed with Gilchriese. When his attention was diverted, SWAT team members advanced to within 50 feet of the pickup’s door. But the narrow passage that led to the truck caused some problems, and the team had to move in more slowly behind the lead man, causing him to be in front of Gilchriese before the diversion was in place, Marachiello said.

“The person that was deploying the noise flash device wasn’t able to get into position as quickly as planned,” Marachiello said. “The fuse also went off a little later than it should. They usually go off in about one to three seconds, and this one was more like five.”

Timing problems aside, the extraction was a success, and no one was hurt in the struggle. Gilchriese is still under observation at ECMC, police have not interviewed him since the incident and no arraignment date has been set yet, said State Police Zone Sgt. Brian Geuise. As for Meckley, Buffalo police aren’t sure what she’s doing since her release, said BPD spokesman Mike DeGeorge.

“From what I gather, she wasn’t charged with anything and she wasn’t taken to ECMC to be treated for injuries,” DeGeorge said. “As far as I know, she’s a free woman.”

Contact reporter Daniel Pyeat 693-1000, ext. 158.