Domestic Dispute Prompts Pine Twp. SWAT Situation

Follow KDKA-TV: Facebook | Twitter

PINE TOWNSHIP (KDKA) -- Police and SWAT teams descended on a quiet well-to-do neighborhood in Pine Township for a family drama turned dangerous late Sunday -- a standoff stretching from night into day.

Authorities were summoned to the home on Lace Bark Court for a verbal fight between a mother and her troubled adult son. Thirty-three-year-old Phil Scott then held arriving law enforcement at bay with a handgun, and neighbors needed to be evacuated about 12 hours into the standoff.

"You don't know what's going on. You just say a prayer for the family that's there. I know the mom and dad got out," neighbor Jeff Anderson said.

Watch Lisa Washington's report --

The standoff began at 10 p.m. Sunday with Scott barricading himself in the house, often coming in and out of a third floor window to speak with police negotiators.

"He was very, very polite with us," Northern Regional Police Chief Bob Amann said.

At 6 a.m., police inside closed the window shut, stranding him on the roof.

At 1:30 p.m. Monday -- hungry, thirsty and hot -- he climbed down a ladder into custody, ending the 13 and half hour standoff.

"Yes, we were waiting him out. We wanted to get everybody down safely. Him down safely. And make sure no officers got hurt," Amann said.

Neighbors said parents, Gerald and Lynn Scott, often quarreled with their son, and just last week, Gerald Scott went to the police with his concerns.

While Amann would not talk about Phil Scott's mental history, he said police had obtained a 302 order -- an involuntary commitment of someone with a mental illness who had become a danger to himself and others.