A standoff between Bangor police and a suspected armed man that closed down three intersections around Union Street on Wednesday afternoon ended peacefully after two hours of negotiations, authorities said.

Police had been negotiating over the phone with a man they believed was threatening to kill himself after a dispute with a romantic partner in a Union Street apartment, according to Sgt. Wade Betters of the Bangor Police Department.





The woman was able to safely flee the scene, said Betters, who declined to identify the man.

“He agreed to come out and surrendered peacefully,” Betters said, adding that the man came out of the second-floor apartment above O’Donnell’s Subs & Deli just before 2 p.m. without a firearm in hand. Police were called to the scene at 11:20 a.m.

A friend of the man and a caseworker helped police convince him to surrender, he said.

The man was taken by police for a medical evaluation. It was unclear whether he would face charges.

Soon after he surrendered, police lifted roadblocks at the intersections of Union and Third streets and Cedar and Third streets.

Police evacuated other residents of the three-story building, and some customers and employees of local businesses chose to wait out the standoff from within and behind nearby buildings.

Melissa Oakes, one of three employees working the lunch shift at O’Donnell’s when police arrived, said she didn’t realize a standoff was taking place on the floor above her until two police officers showed up at the door with assault rifles.

She, two other employees, and about a half-dozen customers camped out inside the shop for about 45 minutes before police let them leave.

Sandwich-maker Bruce Verrill decided to stay and run the ovens.

“Itś pretty hard to walk away from that, even when we had no business,” he said after police had cleared the area, and customers had returned.

¨These guys were amazing,” he said of police. “That could have had a really different outcome.”

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To reach a suicide prevention hotline, call 888-568-1112 or 800-273-TALK (8255), or visit www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org.