Suspect in custody after standoff at McDonald’s in southwest Florida

FORT MYERS, Fla. — A standoff at a McDonald’s in southwest Florida ended peacefully Saturday when an armed man who barricaded himself in a freezer at the fast-food restaurant surrendered to police.

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Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said the man was taken to a hospital as a precaution, the Fort Myers News-Press reported. Marceno said the man’s injuries stemmed from a reaction to tear gas, the newspaper reported.

“We meet deadly force with deadly force in this county,” Marceno told WINK-TV. “Today we used less than lethal and we gassed him out so he cooperated.”

According to Marceno, members of the Fort Myers Police Department encountered a man who shot at them and then entered the McDonald’s at about 11 a.m. EDT, the television station reported.

The restaurant was full but deputies were able to evacuate its employees and customers, the News-Press reported.

The man was speaking with deputies from inside the restaurant but his cellphone ran out of power, according to WBBH. A deputy provided the man with another cellphone to keep the line of communication open, the television station reported.

The man finally surrendered to authorities.

“Again, we always want to resolve things peacefully, but make no mistake we are going to come home at the end of the day,” Marceno told the News-Press. “Our residents are going to have law and order no matter what, so the message is clear. Whoever is that thinks they are going to come to Lee County and commit a violent crime, go somewhere else.”

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