Henry County SWAT standoff ends as man carted off in stretcher

Henry County and Clayton County authorities were on the scene of a SWAT standoff Wednesday morning at a home in the Wesley Lakes area.

Credit: JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM

Credit: JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM

Henry County and Clayton County authorities were on the scene of a SWAT standoff Wednesday morning at a home in the Wesley Lakes area.

An hours-long SWAT standoff in Henry County ended Wednesday morning after a man was carried out of a home on a stretcher.

No further information about the man or the cause of the police activity on East Shoreview Road in McDonough has been released. Henry County and Clayton County SWAT teams were assisting McDonough police, according to the Henry agency.

The man, who was believed to have barricaded himself inside the home alone, was loaded into the back of an ambulance. An officer at the scene told Channel 2 Action News he was armed.

Residents in the Wesley Lakes neighborhood were allowed back into their homes about 8 a.m. Some, like Juan Hillman, spent the night in their cars.

Hillman said he thought his mother was joking when she interrupted his favorite video game to tell him SWAT officers were evacuating the neighborhood. He plays the game often, he said, and his mom has employed similar distraction tactics in the past.

“She was like, ‘Come on, hurry up. Get your stuff and leave,’” Hillman told AJC.com. He still didn’t believe her. “I checked outside of her room window and actually see SWAT people there.”

That was about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday. Hillman, his two siblings, his mother and his stepfather spent the next eight hours sleeping in their car.

Despite the odd sleeping arrangements, Hillman said the night passed uneventfully. He never heard gunfire.

“I didn’t think I would be outside as long as I was because I didn’t hear anything,” he said.

Officers escort residents in the Wesley Lakes neighborhood back into their homes after a SWAT standoff forced them to evacuate late Tuesday night.

Credit: JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM

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Credit: JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM

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