Suspect holds authorities at bay in Md. motel : Exhibit A Baltimore

Suspect holds authorities at bay in Md. motel

By: Associated Press
August 22, 2008

The wanted man holed up with his pregnant girlfriend in a Hancock, Md. motel still hasn’t surrendered.

Maryland State Police spokesman Greg Shipley says negotiators played James Prevatt III a recorded plea from his mother in South Carolina asking that he give himself up, but he hasn’t done so.

Meanwhile, pizza and soda was sent by robot to Prevatt’s room Thursday evening, but Shipley says Prevatt threatened to shoot the robot and never retrieved the food.

The standoff began around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday when state troopers and sheriff’s deputies went to the America’s Best Value Inn on U.S. 522 in Hancock to arrest 26-year-old James A. Prevatt III, Maryland State police spokesman Greg Shipley said.

Shipley said Prevatt threatened to kill the woman in the room with him and any officers who tried to arrest him.

The woman is thought to be Prevatt’s 21-year-old girlfriend, and Shipley said she is believed to be roughly eight months pregnant. Authorities don’t know if Prevatt is the baby’s father. A team of physicians from Johns Hopkins Hospital was standing by to handle any medical emergency, including childbirth, Shipley said.

Thursday evening, Shipley said, troopers attempted to get food to the room with a robot. Shipley did not know if Prevatt got the food.

Troopers and deputies evacuated the 12 occupied rooms of the 20 rooms in the one-story red brick motel where other guests were staying. U.S 522 was blocked in both directions near the motel, where a sign advertises room rates at $45 and up.

Prevatt is wanted in Maryland, South Carolina, Massachusetts and Virginia on burglary and larceny charges, Shipley said, and some of the burglaries involved the theft of firearms. “He has told negotiators that he has weapons,” Shipley said.

Joseph Michael, Washington County deputy state’s attorney, said the only charges on record against Prevatt in Maryland stemmed from a July 2000 warrant involving a burglary and the theft of electronic equipment at a home in Hagerstown.

Prevatt was serving time in prison in Massachusetts as late as February and was released after completing his prison term, Shipley said.

Police had telephone conversations with Prevatt overnight, but not consistently, they said. Negotiations were continuing, Shipley said, but “obviously, he does not want to come out and be arrested.” No shots had been fired, and police don’t believe anyone is injured. Shipley would not say whether police had spoken with the girlfriend.

Hancock is located in Maryland’s mountainous western panhandle, squeezed between the Potomac River and the Pennsylvania border. The town has a population of about 1,700, according to the U.S. Census.