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PITTSBURGH (AP) — A man wanted for violating his probation after he was convicted of holding hostages by pretending to have a bomb at a bank in 2008 has surrendered after spending nearly eight hours refusing to come out of a western Pennsylvania residence surrounded by state police Friday.
The suspect, Charles Cottle, 45, of West Homestead, was brought out in handcuffs shortly before 3 p.m. after state police troopers first escorted a handcuffed woman from the apartment in Hempfield Township. The community is in Westmoreland County, about 25 miles east of Pittsburgh.
It wasn't immediately clear whether Cottle or the woman would face any charges in connection with the standoff. Trooper Steve Limani, a spokesman for the state police barracks in nearby Greensburg, said only that the duo surrendered "without incident."
But it was hardly without inconvenience.
The ordeal began when a fugitive task force led by federal marshals from Pittsburgh went to arrest Cottle about 7 a.m.
A female tenant of the apartment came out shortly after the task force arrived and said Cottle was inside with the other woman, Limani said. Cottle told police from a window that he wasn't coming out and kept refusing until shortly after they used a tractor-like piece of equipment called about 2:30 p.m. The equipment has a bucket that lifted heavily armed troopers to a rear, second-floor window of the apartment, which they broke out.
Police were still attempting to determine whether the woman who remained in the apartment with Cottle was held against her will.
Cottle is awaiting trial on charges of terroristic threats and disorderly conduct stemming from an incident June 16 in West Homestead.
That's where police said Cottle held them at bay for five hours after he refused to leave an apartment, prompting a SWAT team response.
The June arrest violated Cottle's probation on the 2008 case involving the fake bomb at a bank in McKeesport. Other records from the bank case indicate Cottle was due for a mental health review hearing on Jan. 26 that had been postponed several times.
In the 2008 case, McKeesport police Chief Joseph Pero said Cottle was distraught and wanted to die because he had recently lost his job and girlfriend and his mother had died. That's when he duct-taped two empty spray paint cans and wires together and pretended it was a bomb. Cottle never threatened to rob the bank and didn't harm the hostages before surrendering after a couple hours, police said.
Cottle pleaded guilty to having a fake bomb, making a bomb threat, terroristic threats and unlawful restraint. He was eventually sentenced in 2009 to nine to 18 months in the Allegheny County, followed by five years' probation in that case.
U.S. Marshal Steve Frank of Pittsburgh said state police took over the incident because "once a suspect barricades themselves, we don't have the resources and assets to pursue it."
The state police are part of the marshal's Western PA Fugitive Task Force.
Schools officials closed West Hempfield Elementary School on Friday because it was so close to the 54-unit apartment complex where the standoff occurred.
Students were bused to a middle school farther away, where parents could pick them up. The middle school was operating normally otherwise, the district said.
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Keith Srakocic contributed from Hempfield Township.
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