SALISBURY — Police took a Salisbury man who had doused himself in gasoline into custody after a nearly two-hour standoff with officers at a Corbin Hills residence Friday afternoon.
Authorities were called to a home in the 400 block of Wildwood Drive about 1:40 p.m.
Officers said they found 24-year-old Jacob Dobbins armed with a machete and baseball bat inside the home.
“Basically, he poured gasoline throughout the house and himself and would light a match if anybody approached him,” Salisbury Police Capt. Shelia Lingle said. “Officers responded, confirmed it, called a few more to cover the house. Our main purpose was to get him out safely.”
Police found three empty gas canisters when they arrived and quickly called for assistance from Rowan EMS and the Salisbury Fire Department.
Authorities said they haven’t determined what triggered the incident.
A neighbor told the Post he saw Dobbins waving a machete out of a second-story window as officers were arriving on the scene.
Wildwood Drive was shut down for a portion of the afternoon as emergency vehicles lined the streets.
Officers clad in body armor — some holding assault rifles — hotfooted it up to the brick house as things grew to a fever pitch around 3:30 p.m.
Neighbors who watched from their front lawns gathered under trees as lightning and thunder preceded a brief downpour.
Authorities said they responded after a relative of Dobbins called 911. Dobbins lived at the Wildwood Drive residence with his parents, police said.
After two hours, officers were able to use friends and family members to coax Dobbins to come out onto the home’s back porch. He then tossed the bat and machete “in the direction,” of officers, Lingle said.
Once there, police used a flash-bang grenade on the porch and rushed the 24-year-old.
As the loud bang echoed through the upscale neighborhood, a second set of officers hurried through the home’s garage into the front of the house.
Lingle said getting into the house kept Dobbins from doubling back.
About 4 p.m., negotiators and the department’s Special Response Team rounded the corner of the home with Dobbins in custody.
Lingle said it was unclear if Dobbins will be charged in the standoff.
He was taken to Novant Health Rowan Medical Center for evaluation, police said.
Authorities said they have been at the residence on other calls in recent months. According to the corrections department, Dobbins is on probation for a 2012 conviction of assault on a female.
Contact reporter Nathan Hardin at 704-797-4246.