Mother of AR man who barricaded himself inside house calls police response ‘overkill’

MARION, Ark. — On Tuesday evening, the Marion Police Department issued a press release regarding a man barricading himself in his home on Tuesday morning.

At approximately 10:15 a.m., the Marion Police Department responded to the area of 169 Elm Street after receiving a call for assistance from Marion Animal Control Officers in reference to a subject threatening to shoot them.

That suspect was Nicholas Dunn.

His mother Sylvia Dunn owns the home Nicholas was in and said she doesn’t believe her son would threaten anyone’s life.

“My son told them (Animal Control) to just get off the property,” Sylvia Dunn said. “And I don’t know exactly what his words were or whatever but she took it as a threat and she called the police.”

Marion Police say that members of the Marion, West Memphis and Crittenden County Special Responses teams responded to the area and set up a perimeter around the residence.

“It’s actually very shocking that all of this happened across the street,” a neighbor said. “This is a quiet little street -there’s what? Six houses on it. And this is very strange.”

As a way to get the individuals outside the house, a neighbor and Sylvia Dunn claim that officers went beyond “peacefully” using their words.

“The smoke bombs went off, the tear gas, they bombed it at least like 30 times,” the neighbor said.

“They overkilled it. Come to find out after they tear off my garage door and throw in the tear gas and they threw it in every window,” Sylvia Dunn said. “Anybody that was in there would have come out or would have died or choked to death or whatever. And I kept on trying to tell them, let me go in there. Let me see about him to see if he’s even in there. And they wouldn’t do it.”

Individuals exited the residence and were detained.

“They had nothing to do with this that happened today,” Sylvia Dunn said. “And still the police tried to take them to the jail or whatever, and they shouldn’t be doing that. They didn’t have nothing to do with it.”

Those individuals eventually told officers that the suspect in question, Nicholas Dunn, was inside the residence and had access to firearms.

Police say that they spent several hours trying to get Dunn out of the residence, but he wouldn’t budge.

At approximately 4 p.m., Special Response made entry and cleared the residence. However, Dunn was not located inside.

Detectives with the Marion Police Department did locate an AK-style shotgun and two .22 caliber pistols inside the residence.

A warrant will be obtained for Nicholas Dunn for the charge of first-degree felony terroristic threatening.

With his whereabouts unknown, Sylvia Dunn had a heartfelt message for her son.

“Nick if you’re out there, I love you and I want you to come home. I didn’t intend on all this to happen, and they shouldn’t be doing you this way just for telling somebody to get out of your yard,” Sylvia Dunn said. “And it just blown out of proportion. Please come home. I love you and I don’t want you to be hurt or out there without anybody. I do want to tell you I love you, I support you, and please come home safely.”

Police say the investigation is still active and ongoing. Any additional details may be released at a later date.

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