By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
AMITY — A daylong standoff ended peacefully last Tuesday, as Maine State Police negotiators were able to convince an Amity man to surrender himself.
Gary Knapp, 65, had been holed up in a camper in a wooded area located on the Monument Road after his brother, Larry, filed a complaint the previous evening Oct. 21. Larry Knapp informed state police that his brother threatened him with a firearm.
Gary Knapp surrendered and walked out of the woods unarmed around 3 p.m. after state police negotiators convinced him through a PA system to end the standoff. A rifle was recovered from the camper site in the woods, said Steve McCausland, spokesperson for the Maine State Police.
Knapp was charged with criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon and was taken without incident to the Aroostook County Jail.
Lt. John E. Cote of Troop F in Houlton said his department was first made aware of the situation on Monday evening. Cote said attempts to get Knapp to exit the camper in the evening hours of Oct. 21 were not successful.
Cote said Larry Knapp of Monticello informed police he had gone to the property, which is owned by a third brother that lives in Waterville, to retrieve some items. They were confronted at rifle point and ordered off the property by Gary Knapp, Cote said.
“We typically resolve a lot of these cases with our local resources and do not have to call in the state tactical team,” Cote said. “That was our initial attempt Monday night. We knew he was contained and didn’t have the ability to become mobile, so we sat and waited.”
A perimeter around the property was established to make sure Knapp could not flee the scene. Monument Road was also closed to traffic.
Knapp had a cell phone with him, but it had no current subscription, Cote said. He was only to communicate with state police by dialing 9-1-1 or by yelling at them through the walls of his camper. Cote explained an arrest warrant had been secured, but Knapp refused to exit his camper.
Tuesday, around 7 a.m., additional state troopers including the tactical response team were called in to deal with the situation. An armored response vehicle responded to the scene around 8:30 a.m., along with multiple state troopers.
“Our phone conversations became less productive as the day went on Tuesday,” Cote said. “We were at a point where he (Knapp) was determining the contact. So at that point we went to more of a loudspeaker approach to contact him. He basically said he wasn’t coming out and wasn’t going to give up his weapon.”
Cote said a number of inaccurate reports surfaced on the social media site Facebook. Those reports claimed the incident centered on a hunting dispute and a person may have been shot at. He added that incidents like this one were not uncommon throughout the state.
“Statewide, dozens of these types of standoffs are resolved through either local troop resources or with the tactical team peacefully,” he said. “Those incidents don’t tend to garner the media attention though. Some times, a trooper can bring a conflict to resolution with just a one-on-one meeting.”
The Houlton Ambulance Service was contacted to be on scene and assisted with blocking off Monument Road. The Maine Forest Service also assisted.
