Two men taken into custody after standoff with SWAT team

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Two Baltimore County men were in custody on attempted-murder charges Thursday after a four-hour standoff with a SWAT team outside a West Baltimore row house the previous day following a shooting.

Nathaniel Bryson, 36, of Woodlawn, and Daryl Richards, 37, of Randallstown, both were being held in lieu of bail.

Sometime between 2 and 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, two police officers in the Western District heard “shots and screams” coming from the 1700 block of Harlem Avenue, said Sterling Clifford, the Baltimore police spokesman. The officers saw several people running from a house, including one man who was suffering from gunshot wounds.

One officer attempted to enter the house through the front door — but was blocked by a suspect — while the other officer ran to the back, Clifford said.

Police called in a SWAT team and secured the area, posting at least two officers in every direction along the perimeter of the home.

Clifford said police tried unsuccessfully for nearly four hours to negotiate with the men inside the home, before resorting to using tear gas at 6 p.m.

After being hit with tear gas, one man surrendered, Clifford said. Officers then entered the dwelling and arrested a second suspect. The shooting victim was taken to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Clifford said he did not know the reason for the shooting but the “likely motive was robbery, probably drug-related.”

Four nearby schools were placed on lockdown, then were evacuated, one by one, during the incident.

lbroadwater@baltimoreexaminer.com

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