After several tense hours outside Morristown Medical Center on Monday night, authorities arrested an armed man who they say set a car ablaze after assaulting his partner in front of their young child.
Chancelle Ibin Young, 29, of Morristown, was on Franklin Street, brandishing a weapon and exhibiting “increasingly threatening behavior”–setting a vehicle on fire–when Morristown police responded to a report of a domestic dispute, according to a statement Tuesday from the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office.
Police were joined by members of the Prosecutor’s and Sheriff’s offices. Several streets were closed and the hospital went into lockdown around 10 pm, as hostage negotiators attempted to calm the suspect, who paced Franklin Street just beyond the emergency entrance to the hospital.
A video posted by Morristown.nj appeared to show Young firing a shot onto the pavement from a handgun; another clip showed firefighters, from a distance, blasting water at a car fully engulfed in flames.
Young was arrested around midnight and taken to the hospital emergency room, according to police scanner communications. He later was remanded to the Morris County Jail.
He is charged with Aggravated Arson, Possession of a Weapon for Unlawful Purpose (firearm); Unlawful Possession of a Weapon (firearm), Terroristic Threats, and Endangering the Welfare of a Child, all second-degree offenses.
Young also is accused of Aggravated Assault on a Domestic Violence Victim, Pointing a Firearm at Law Enforcement, and Criminal Mischief, all third-degree crimes.
Officers “professionally handled a difficult and dangerous situation with courage, patience and skillful use of police de-escalation techniques to eventually arrest a subject who exhibited major threatening behavior,” commended Prosecutor Robert Carroll, in a joint statement with Chief of Detectives Christoph Kimker, Morris Sheriff James Gannon and Morristown Acting Police Chief Darnell Richardson.
The hospital lockdown was lifted at 12:20 am on Tuesday, a spokesperson said.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office at 973-285-6200 or the Morristown Bureau of Police at 973-538-2200
