A Sandy Springs burglar was injured Sunday after a three-hour stand-off with a SWAT team.
Tyrus Barnett went into the Wells Fargo Bank branch at 1034 Hammond Drive sometime around 5:30 p.m., Sunday, police said.
"It's not clear why Barnett chose a bank to burglarize," Lt. Steve Rose, the Sandy Springs police spokesman, said.
The bank was closed, and Barnett, 50, consequently set off the branch's alarms, alerting police.
A Sandy Springs policeman responding to the alarm reported the appearance of forced entry at the bank.
Rose said the officer saw someone inside the bank who ducked for cover when spotted.
Police then blocked off Hammond Drive, from Peachtree Dunwoody Road to the overpass at Ga. 400 for three hours, calling in the North Metro SWAT team comprised of Dunwoody, Johns Creek and Sandy Springs cops.
Around 6:20 p.m., a police negotiator tried to contact the man inside the bank through a specially installed phone.
He didn't answer.
Cops kept calling until 8 p.m., when SWAT and police dog teams went into the bank.
Barnett had climbed into a crawl space in the drop ceiling to hide, Rose said.
Officers, seeing that a piece of the ceiling had been removed, sent a scope camera up into the crawl space to search for him, police said.
"He must've backed over a soft spot in the ceiling," Rose said.
Barnett fell through to the ground where he was arrested, police said.
He was taken to Northside Hospital to be treated for a leg injury he suffered falling though the ceiling.
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