Brunswick police peacefully resolved the situation Monday when a man who police say suffers from dementia trashed his home and started firing a weapon while his wife was in the house.

Mark M. Waltz, commander of support services, said in a statement that Brunswick police received a 911 call around 1:44 p.m. from a woman who said she was trapped in a room at her home on Lunt Road.

Waltz said the woman’s elderly husband was shooting a gun in the house and destroying the interior with a baseball bat.

Police are not releasing the man’s name or age to protect his family’s privacy. Waltz said the man was placed in protective custody and taken to a local hospital for a mental health evaluation. He was not charged with a crime.

According to Waltz, the Brunswick Police Department, Brunswick Fire Department and Freeport Police Department responded to the report of an armed man barricaded inside a home on Lunt Road. Authorities shut down Lunt Road to traffic.

During the standoff, a communications officer contacted the man’s wife while police set up a perimeter around the home.

The situation was complicated because the man was hard of hearing, Waltz said.

However, around 2:35 p.m., the man came out of the home – he was not armed at the time – and officers took him into custody. His wife was unharmed.

Dennis Hoey can be contacted at 791-6365 or at:

dhoey@pressherald.com