Law enforcement responds to man with handgun

LUDINGTON — At 11:23 am the Ludington Police Department responded to a complaint of an unwanted subject at 807 E. Ludington Ave. The caller indicated that there were as many as eight other individuals inside the home, according to a press release from the LPD.

Officers arrived at the location and made contact with the caller. During that contact a Ludington officer observed that the caller, a white male, in his 50’s, had a black handgun in his possession.

The Ludington officers backed off to a position of cover and notified Mason-Oceana 911 and requested assistance. Additional LPD officers, personnel from the Mason County Sheriff’s Office, officers from Michigan Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Forestry Law Enforcement, Ludington Fire Dept. and Michigan State Police – Hart Post personnel responded and set-up a perimeter around the home, and closed off traffic in a several block stretch of Ludington Avenue.

Several unsuccessful attempts to contact the subject via telephone and public address system were made. Eventually 911 was able to contact the subject via telephone and he agreed to exit his home. A few minutes later the subject exited his home, unarmed and was taken into protective custody.

In an attempt to determine if there were other subjects inside the home officers made several attempts to call into the home with no response. Members of the Mason County Sheriff’s Office Sheriff’s Emergency Response Team (S.E.R.T.) were able to enter the home and determine that the home was empty. Officers located and seized the black semi-automatic style B.B. CO2 pistol in the front room of the house, that the subject had earlier. No other weapons were located in the house.

Based on the circumstances of this incident, as well as other recent calls for service involving the subject he was taken to Memorial Medical Center for evaluation by Community Mental Health.

During the incident Ludington Area Schools Interim Superintendant David Killips was notified of the situation and locked-down the schools. Once the incident was resolved Mr. Killips was notified and the lock-down was terminated and Ludington Ave. was reopened for traffic and officers cleared the scene at 13:32 pm.