Richard Cowen

NorthJersey

HACKENSACK – A five-hour standoff with a man at a home on First Street near Stanley Place ended Friday with the suspect found dead inside.

Hackensack councilman David Sims, who spent much of the afternoon and evening at the scene, said city manager Ted Ehrenburg told him the cause of death was a "self-inflicted gunshot wound."

"It was a suicide," Sims said.

It was not clear late Friday as to how the man died and no official word from authorities.

ABC's Eyewitness News identified the dead man as Zire King, who was wanted by the NYPD for the murder of MTA conductor Jackie Dicks on Monday night. King was found dead inside a closet after the Bergen County SWAT team stormed the house shortly before 7 p.m.

The incident began around 2 p.m., when police went looking for a suspect they believed was at the home, which is almost directly across the street from the Martin Luther King Jr. Senior Center on First Street.

Seniors were gathered inside for their regular Friday get-together when police began swarming the neighborhood. Patricia Boyle, a volunteer, said the center immediately went into lockdown, and that's where 17 senior citizens remained for the next five hours, until police escorted them out.

"I saw a lot of police cars," Boyle said. "I saw a lot of guns drawn. It was scary."

The Bergen County SWAT team arrived with an armored vehicle and police cordoned off the area, beginning a five-hour standoff that didn't end until after 7 p.m.

The SWAT team positioned itself behind an armored vehicle. Between 5:30 and 6 p.m., the SWAT team fired 11 shots at the house, although it was impossible to tell whether it was tear gas or bullets.

The SWAT team made several attempts to enter the house and eventually knocked down the front door.

The incident froze the neighborhood. Some residents couldn't leave their homes, while others stood outside the police barricades set up on First and Second Streets.

One man, who identified himself only by his first name, Frank, said his girlfriend was stuck inside a house across the street from where the suspect was holed up.

"She called me at work around 2:15 p.m. to say she heard several gunshots," Frank said. "She said she saw police on the scene and they were running and there was a lot of yelling."