GLOUCESTER CITY, N.J. — A 39-year-old Gloucester City man is behind bars after police say he doused a Ridgeway Street home and two people inside it with lighter fluid early Thursday, then barricaded himself inside the residence and triggered a roughly two-hour standoff with law enforcement.
Eugene Jackson, of Gloucester City, was taken into custody without incident at about 2:36 a.m., according to the Gloucester City Police Department.
Officers responded to a home in the 600 block of Ridgeway Street around 1 a.m. following reports of a man pouring lighter fluid over the residence and its occupants. By the time police arrived, the two victims had managed to escape the house unharmed, authorities said. Jackson, however, remained inside and refused to come out, police said.
With the suspect still holed up in the home, responding officers established a perimeter around the property and evacuated several nearby residents as a precaution. The Camden County Sheriff’s Emergency Response Team (S.E.R.T.) was called in to assist with the tense situation in the residential neighborhood of the Delaware River borough, which sits just across the river from Philadelphia.
The standoff came to an end shortly after 2:30 a.m., when Jackson walked out of the home on his own and surrendered to police without further incident, according to officials.
Jackson now faces an extensive list of charges stemming from the alleged attack, including attempted murder, attempted arson, arson, two counts of aggravated assault, terroristic threats, endangering another person, and weapons-related offenses, police said.
He was transported to the Camden County Department of Corrections, where he is being held pending a detention hearing. It was not immediately clear whether Jackson had secured an attorney, and authorities have not released information on what may have preceded the incident or described Jackson’s relationship to the two victims.
The investigation remains active, and police have asked anyone with additional information to contact the Gloucester City Police Department.
SOURCE: 6abc.com/
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