BERWICK — A fugitive wanted by state parole ignited a four-hour standoff with police here Tuesday morning after barricading himself in a Monroe Street home.

Adam Wample, 47, of Berwick, refused to leave a single-family home at 353 Monroe St. when a team of federal marshals showed up in the quiet residential neighborhood with a warrant for his arrest about 9 a.m.

Wample, who has a lengthy criminal history of stealing and evading arrest, ultimately surrendered without incident shortly after 1 p.m.

“We had a successful peaceful end to this,” Berwick Police Chief Ken Strish said.

“There were communications with him right along through a SWAT team negotiator trying to get him to come out peacefully,” Strish went on.

“I think he decided to come out when given an ultimatum that it was now over,” he said.

Waiting outside were Berwick police and members of the Columbia County SWAT team who took up positions surrounding the residence armed with tactical weapons.

Several U.S. Marshals from Scranton were also stationed around the perimeter of the home.

Also called out to the standoff as a precaution was a Reliance Company fire engine and a Geisinger ambulance in the event “something went wrong,” Strish said.

Wample, whose home address on court records is listed as 41 First Lane in Berwick, has used “a number” of addresses in recent years including that on Monroe Street where he’s been known to stay at various times, Strish said.

No weapons on suspect

There was no immediate indication that Wample was armed or had weapons at any time during the standoff, although police had no way of knowing that when the standoff ensued, Strish said.

Nor was there anyone else in the home at the time he steadfastly hunkered down, officials said.

Police later obtained a search warrant to carefully look through the house to see if any evidence could be located that may lead to more charges as a result of the standoff.

“Right now, we're taking him back to our house where he will be throughly briefed and a decision made on whether additional charges could be brought after consulting with the DA,” Strish said of transport to the police station.

Neighborhood, school locked down

Due to the seriousness of an uncertain situation, police closed down the entire 300 block of Monroe Street from Elm Street to where it ends at the outer edge of Fowler Field.

A lockdown of students was also advised at the nearby West Berwick Elementary School only two blocks away as recess and lunch time neared.

Strish said there was no evacuation of residents from the neighborhood, where only a handful of folks could be seen at times peering out from porches or side yards.

Most people were likely at work at the time and Strish said he heard no complaints or other input from residents there.

“The situation started out hard and fast and dissolved from there,” Strish said of how the standoff evolved.

“Anytime you need to call in a lot of resources like this it is costly. So we need to go over everything and determine what more needs to be done,” the police chief said.

At times, deliveries of packages by FedEx and Amazon drivers were also turned away at the police tape barring public access to the neighborhood.

One Berwick firefighter volunteered to accept a package from a flustered delivery driver and walk it down to a front porch a few doors down from Elm Street.

“They got a job to do too,” that unidentified Reliance fireman said.

Leon Bogdan covers crime and courts. He can be reached at leon.bogdan@pressenterprise.net or by calling 570-387-1234 ext. 1307.