It was a wild day in the South End Tuesday with streets shut down, Emerson College students told to avoid the area and a large police presence as authorities dealt with an hours-long standoff with an armed suspect.
Police eventually peacefully arrested Ernest Fields, 37 of Boston, who was wanted for armed robbery and recovered a loaded firearm. Fields was booked on several gun charges.
The incident began at 10 am when Boston Police received reports of a man with a gun on Albany Street between East Berkeley Street and Malden Street.
Police responded to the area and surrounded Fields in a park, shut down streets in the area and called in the SWAT team.
Fields was finally taken into custody around 5 pm after police negotiators brought Fields’ family to the park to convince him to surrender and was taken to an area hospital for a mental health evaluation.
“I can’t say enough about the job our officers did today,” Boston Police Superintendent and Chief Gregory Long told reporters after the standoff. “It’s been a long day. The patience, the time they utilized, the restraint and de-escalation tactics they used to turn an extremely dangerous situation into one with a peaceful ending without serious injury to anybody is incredible.”