UPDATED: Police wrap up investigation into Thursday’s standoff

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UPDATED: Police wrap up investigation into Thursday’s standoff
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What began as a possible police standoff ended quietly Thursday afternoon after the department’s special operations team entered an empty public housing unit in the Hopkins-Tancil neighborhood.

Police received an anonymous report of a gunshot fired inside the 306 Hopkins Court house earlier in the day. Authorities clamped down on the neighborhood, diverting traffic around the block, and brought in their heavily armed special operations team. Residents in nearby Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority buildings were evacuated and others were told to stay inside.

But when officers broke into the home shortly before 2 p.m. – following repeated demands for anyone inside to give themselves up – they found no one, said Ashley Hildebrandt, department spokeswoman. There was no evidence of any crime committed and officers do not believe there is a gunman on the lose, she said.

Authorities wrapped up their investigation into the incident Thursday afternoon, Hildebrandt said. She did not know if detectives were looking into the individual behind the anonymous tip.

The incident occurred in a neighborhood familiar to many in the department. Two officers – Cpl. Charles Hill and Officer Andrew Chelchowski – were shot during a hostage crisis in the 300 block of Hopkins Court in March 1989. Hill, suffering a gunshot wound to the head, died shortly afterward. Chelchowski was wounded and died in 1993.

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