Monroe man in custody after shooting inside apartment, police standoff

A Monroe man is in police custody following a standoff on Saturday night.

Police responded to Nottingham Apartments on Castleberry Court, off Highway 74 in Monroe, around 7:30 p.m. Saturday after receiving calls about a man firing shots from inside a second-floor apartment.

When they arrived, police said they found 51-year-old John Lockhart firing the shots. They told Channel 9’s Glenn Counts that though Lockhart continued shooting when police arrived, it is unclear who or what he was shooting at.

No one was injured, officials said.

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Neighbors told Counts that after the hours-long standoff, Lockhart jumped from a balcony in his final attempts to escape.

One neighbor told Counts she heard hundreds of bullets.

“I believe I heard 160 to 200 gunshots,” Gwendolyn Roithmeier said.

“That many?” Counts asked.

“Probably more if I’m being honest,” she responded. “It was too much to count.”

She said this is not common in the area.

“It’s not every day you go through something like this or hear this many bullets,” Roithmeier said.

But neighbors did tell Counts that Lockhart often sat on his balcony and seemingly talked to himself.

Lockhart was taken into police custody and taken to a nearby hospital for a mental health evaluation. Upon release from the hospital, police say Lockhart will face criminal charges.

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