Crime & Safety

Update: Gwinnett SWAT Stand-off Resolved Peacefully

Man fired shots at Gwinnett PD and Gwinnett SWAT team, barricaded himself in Norcross area apartments. No one was injured in the incident.

Updated 3:47 p.m. 

A man fired shots at Gwinnett Police and SWAT teams this morning then barricaded himself in a Norcross-area apartment. The stand-off ended around 9 a.m. after he surrendered to police. 

Kelvin Barefield, 43, has been taken into custody and crime scene investigators are currently gathering more information in the case. 

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Officers responded to a call of a domestic disturbance at the Grove at Stonebrook Apartments at 1405 Beaver Ruin Road around 5 a.m., according to Cpl. Jake Smith of the Gwinnett Police Dept. 

Gwinnett Police officers tried to talk to the man as he threw items out of his apartment, but he would not open the door, according to a police statement. About 5:20 a.m., Barefield fired "an unknown number" of rounds at police, but no one was injured. A SWAT team was called in and the man reportedly also fired on them with no resulting injuries. "The subject also continued to throw items from inside the house at officers and police vehicles," said Smith in the statement. 

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The man decided to surrender peacefully at around 8:30 a.m., according to Smith, and was taken into custody around 9 a.m. 

Neighbors who returned home from a night out around 3 a.m. said they saw a man in Apt. 1010 throwing things out of his apartment and onto the street. 

"He was throwing stuff out of his window — big stuff, like fans — and saying crazy things," said Michael Diaz, who lives in unit 1103, directly across from Barefield's home. His cousin made the initial call to the police. 

Diaz and his friends watched the situation unfold from his window. He said the man was "talking trash to police" and also saying erratic things like his mother was a part of the FBI. He was also talking about his wife of two years, making derrogitory comments. The neighbors said they never saw the woman and believe that she was not home during the incident. 

He has been charged with Barefield with aggravated assault, reckless conduct, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

A social-media report from the scene said, "The swat team told me to stay in the house..." 


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