A woman and children were "in close proximity" to an apartment Monday afternoon on College Hill when a man who would later be found dead fired the first of "multiple" shots from a rifle, Easton police said Tuesday morning.

Police responded just after 5 p.m. Monday to a domestic incident in a second-floor apartment at 319 Cattell St. The man, identified in loudspeaker announcements as Brandon Buss, had lived in the home at one point but was no longer a resident there, police Lt. Matthew Gerould said.

The man had two children -- an 11-year-old girl and a baby, a relative said -- but it wasn't immediately clear if they were the children who were in the apartment at one point. The woman, who was not the man's mother, got the children out of the building and alerted police to the situation, Gerould said. He wouldn't explain the relationship beyond saying the incident was domestic in nature.

The ensuing five-hour standoff never resulted in police speaking to the man, Gerould said. They tried a landline phone, a cellphone and a public address system, Gerould said.

Police blocked several streets and ordered neighbors to stay indoors for the duration of the standoff.

The man died from a gunshot long before police entered the apartment just after 10 p.m., having first used a stair-climbing robot to locate the man's body, Gerould said. "Multiple shots" had been fired by the man, evidence in the apartment later indicated, Gerould said. No one but the man was wounded, Gerould said. The rifle was found near the man, Gerould said.

Gerould, attempting to debunk several rumors, wanted it to be clear it was not a drug raid; it was a domestic situation. There were numerous rumors as people within the several-block area were told to stay in their homes and those outside the police line gathered on sidewalks and in streets. Two people several blocks apart said they heard there was a methamphetamine lab in the apartment, but Gerould said that wasn't so.

It wasn't immediately clear if drugs were recovered from the apartment. Evidence was still being processed Tuesday morning, Gerould said. Family members, who paced behind police tape at the Wawa at Cattell and High streets, fretted the man had overdosed.

With the close quarters of the many homes in the 300 block of Cattell Street and the risk of a man with a scoped rifle holed up in the apartment, police brought in the city's Special Response Unit and crisis negotiators, Gerould said.

A Bearcat armored vehicle for hours moved between the Parsons Street command center and the apartment in the middle of the 300 block.

A noise-flash diversion device was set off about 8:40 p.m. outside the apartment, but then the negotiators went back to work, asking the man to show his hands or shake a shade or in some other way indicate he understood what police wanted.

Eventually, "after no contact for several hours, the determination was made to find out," Gerould said. The emphasis was on safety, so the robot went first to "assist in securing the apartment."

When police entered the apartment, a second device was set off about 10:05, creating a more muffled sound because it was inside, Gerould said. Police didn't fire any shots and the sound was not the man firing a weapon, Gerould added.

Police remained on the scene until 4:47 a.m., Northampton County 911 records show.

The unattended death investigation continues with the Northampton County Coroner's Office, Gerould said.

Coroner Zachary Lysek on Tuesday morning did not immediately return a phone message seeking the man's identity and the cause and manner of his death.