Date: December 5, 2004
Written By: Tracy Jan, Globe Staff
HAVERHILL -- A standoff between police and an armed fugitive from Texas ended peacefully yesterday afternoon when the man surrendered and exited his daughter's Haverhill apartment, where he had barricaded himself for nearly five hours.
Police arrested 48-year-old Mark Matthews, a convicted felon wanted in Texas on warrants for weapons charges and restraining order violations. Matthews took no hostages, and no one was injured during the incident, police said.
The Haverhill Police Department received an anonymous tip Friday night to look out for a yellow Chevrolet truck with Texas plates belonging to a fugitive with a violent history, said Sergeant John Arahovites, a Haverhill police spokesman. Officers found the truck on Bellevue Avenue at 9 a.m. yesterday, around the same time police received a second anonymous call saying Matthews was holed up in an apartment, where his daughter and baby granddaughter live with a friend. The caller said Matthews had an assault rifle, shotgun, and 9mm handgun, Arahovites said.
When Haverhill police arrived at the three-story apartment near Passaqua Playground, Matthews told police he was not coming out because he did not want to go back to jail. Police called a SWAT team, evacuated about 10 buildings, and blocked cars and pedestrians from portions of Bellevue Avenue, Marshall Street, and Blaisdell Street. Heavily armed SWAT officers surrounded the home around 1:45 p.m. and, using a bullhorn, ordered Matthews to come out. Shortly afterward, he emerged, unshaven and dressed in a gray sweat shirt.
''This was an armed and desperate individual," Arahovites said after the standoff. ''The suspect knew he was outnumbered and outgunned. He gave himself up."
Police searched the house and found a sawed-off shotgun, but none of the other reported weapons. They discovered ammunition in Matthews's truck, which was towed after his arrest.
Neighbors, many of whom weren't allowed past their front porches all morning, clapped and cheered as SWAT team members filed past.
Police said Matthew's daughter was not home during the incident.
Police contend that Matthews, who is from Spicewood, Texas, arrived in Haverhill in early November to visit family. The warrants for his arrest in Texas were issued in September.
Matthews will be arraigned at 9 a.m. tomorrow in Haverhill District Court on charges of illegal possession of ammunition, illegal possession of a sawed-off shotgun, and being a fugitive from justice.
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