BRADENTON, Fla. (WFLA) — A resident of a Bradenton mobile home park is dead after holding the manager of the park hostage during a dispute over rent, according to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.
The ordeal began around 7:45 a.m. on Thursday, when deputies responded to the mobile home park located at 570 57th Avenue West.
When they arrived, deputies discovered that a man was in the clubhouse holding another man hostage.
Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells confirmed Glenn Watenpool, 68, was holding Mike Albaugh, 54, hostage.
Watenpool told negotiators he was upset with several ongoing issues in his life and wanted to kill himself.
Residents who live in the mobile home park told WFLA News Channel 8 that they heard numerous gun shots before police arrived on the scene.
“Well, when you looked out of my front window is the swat team right in front of my house,” Linda Pray, one of the suspect’s neighbors told News Channel 8. Pray said it had been extremely scary for her. “I’m a small town girl,” she said.
Neighbors Andy Adell echoed those sentiments. “It is a little scary if you have someone armed in the neighborhood.”
The mobile home park was evacuated and the road in front of it, 57th Avenue West, was closed.
A SWAT team responded and a negotiator tried to end the hostage situation.
Shortly after 2 p.m. flash bangs could be heard from the mobile home park and then an ambulance drove in.
Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells later said that the SWAT team entered the building and was fired upon, so SWAT team members fired back.
“No one would listen to him, so this was his day to be heard,” the Sheriff said in a press conference.
Watenpool was armed with a handgun and a shotgun.
Albaugh was taken to a hospital for treatment of a non-life threatening injury he suffered when Watenpool struck him in the head with a gun.
“I’m happy that everybody’s safe that needs to be safe and I feel bad for the family who now has a deceased member of their family,” Adell said moments before he went back into his home.
Daughtrey Elementary and Harllee Middle School were placed on lockdown Thursday morning after Manatee County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded the Pescara Lake Mobile Home Park. Blanche H. Daughtrey Elementary School is located at 515 63rd Ave E. Sara Scott Harllee Middle School is located at 6423 9th St E.HAT OTHERS ARE CLICKING ON-
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