LANSFORD - A Lansford man is in prison, unable to post $100,000 bail, after he allegedly held his girlfriend hostage in a borough home for hours Sunday night into early Monday morning.
Jefferey A. Gangaware, 51, barricaded the woman inside a home on Bertsch Street, disconnected the telephone and seized her cellphones Sunday about 7:40 p.m., court papers state.
Minutes before midnight, Carbon County 911 dispatched Lansford police to 524 Bertsch St. for a woman being held hostage.
As officers approached the home, they could hear a woman screaming from inside, court papers state, so responding officers kicked in the front door but a couch was positioned in front of the door, blocking their entry.
Court papers state officers moved the couch and then entered the home with guns drawn and heard a man yelling from upstairs, "Great, now the (expletive) cops are here!" followed by, "Don't come up the steps, I have a gun!"
Police heard the woman yelling again but this time, it came from the outside rear of the home. Officers ran out of the home toward the woman's screams. The woman was identified as Bernice Moser, who said her boyfriend, Gangaware, had several guns in his possession, arrest papers state.
Moser told police he had a handgun and shotgun in the front living room and additional guns were upstairs with Gangaware, who wanted Moser to shoot him because he "no longer wanted to live separate lives," court papers state.
Moser told police all the doors to the home were barricaded and Gangaware had refused to let her leave the home since 7:40 p.m. Arrest papers state Moser told police Gangaware tied the bedroom door to the staircase with rope so Moser couldn't open the door to escape, took her cellphones and disconnected the home phone so she couldn't call anyone.
With Moser in a safe place, police attempted to make contact with Gangaware but he would only speak with Moser and during their conversation, police wrote, he indicated that if any officers came into the home, he was going to "empty a clip into them." He said he was in the attic with the stairway barricaded and, "The cops are going to have to shoot me in the head," arrest papers state. Moser told police she believed he had a bulletproof vest, AR-15 and AK-47 assault rifles, along with a gas mask in the home.
The state police Special Emergency Response Team was activated and Gangaware was eventually taken into custody.
Richard Egrie and Venus Enoch-Egrie live next door to Gangaware and said they heard the fighting at their neighbors Sunday but attributed it to children playing.
About midnight they heard what Enoch-Egrie called, "a blood-curdling scream." As the early morning wore on, Enoch-Egrie said she noticed a missed call on her phone and when she called the number back she was asked for her address. A few moments later, a 911 dispatcher told her to get everyone in her home into the basement. The couple, along with their daughter and granddaughter, retreated to the basement where they waited for about 45 minutes until they were told it was OK to move.
Both characterized Gangaware and Moser as nice people and were glad to hear there were no injuries. They said Gangaware had just moved there a few months earlier.
Gangaware was charged by borough police with aggravated assault, a felony and misdemeanor counts of unlawful restraint and simple assault.
He was arraigned by Magisterial District Judge Joseph Homanko about 9:30 a.m., according to a court docket, and unable to post bail, was taken to county jail. His preliminary hearing is scheduled before Magisterial District Judge Casimir T. Kosciolek on July 3 at 1:15 p.m.
No injuries were reported.