Residents of Pine Island in southeastern Minnesota were instructed by local authorities on Saturday to shelter in place following a standoff with an armed individual, but the local Sheriff's Office later said they accidentally sent the alert more widely than they should have.
The Goodhue County Sheriff's Office said officers responded Saturday morning to a call about a possible domestic dispute in the southeast part of the town, which is about 70 miles southeast of the Twin Cites.
A statement from the department said that upon arrival, an individual began to make "threats of utilizing firearms against members of law enforcement and stating they were currently holding a hostage," according to a press release from the department.
SWAT teams from both Goodhue and Olmstead counties were called. It was later determined that no additional persons were in the house. The standoff was ongoing by early Saturday evening, and the sheriff's office said negotiators had been in discussions with the individual for some six hours.
The statement from the sheriff's office said that the shelter in place message was initially sent "to a greater section of Minnesota" than it should have been, and was only meant to apply to residents within close proximity of the incident.
"This was an accident and there is no cause for alarm," the sheriff's message said.
By 8:30 p.m., the department issued a statement that a suspect was in custody.
