Six-hour stand-off at Stewart’s ends when alleged bomber surrenders

by Dan McClelland

A six-hour stand-off between local and state police and a local man who claimed to have a bomb in the Tupper Lake Stewart’s Shop Wednesday afternoon and evening ended without injury or incident, after the alleged bomber surrendered.

The Village of Tupper Lake police officers were dispatched to the Stewart’s site in the center of the village’s uptown business district shortly before 3p.m. that afternoon for what was reported to be “a general alarm panic.”

En route, officers were advised that there was a man inside the store claiming to have a bomb, according to a statement from the local PD Thursday.

“Officers quickly evacuated the occupants of the store and confirmed the presence of the alleged bomber, David A. Payrot, 44, of Tupper Lake.”

He had claimed to have a bomb and a remote detonator switch.

The half dozen or so village officers established a perimeter around the corner of High Street and Park, using yellow crime scene tape. Police vehicles also partially cordoned off the site.

The village police requested help from the New York State Police and the Department of Environmental Police, and numerous uniformed state troopers and Encon officers were on scene shortly after 3p.m.

In addition to troopers were a number of Troop B officers, its negotiation and SORT teams and K-9s and their handlers.

Mr. Payrot reportedly told the two Stewart’s staff members in the store at the time- Tammy Clement and Jamie Jaquish- that inside his backpack he was in possession of what the police statement said was “a high yield explosive devise.” He suggested they leave and they did, according to reports.

There were no customers in the store when Payrot entered, although one person was approaching and was told by the staff leaving to go.

Payrot reportedly went first into the bathroom and then sat down in one of the store’s dining booths and called 911 Dispatch, telling the dispatcher he was in Stewart’s in Tupper Lake and he had a bomb, according to comments later from Stewart’s employees. He then settled in for what ended up being a six-hour stand-off.

In the early minutes of the incident, when local officers first on the scene were making sure there were no other occupants, Payrot encouraged the officers repeatedly to leave to avoid injury.

“Payrot also displayed a device to police claiming it to be a ‘Deadman’ detonator,” according to the statement.

Between 3:30p.m. and 4p.m. officers began visiting nearby buildings and asking occupants to vacate. The Free Press building next door was one of their first visits.

One of the concerns of local and area law enforcement, according to reports that afternoon, was the proximity of the Stewart’s fuel pumps to the building. Had a bomb have exploded inside the building, it could have triggered much larger explosions at the adjacent pumps.

Members of the Tupper Lake Fire Department apparently assisted law enforcement with a canvass of the homes and businesses within a block of scene- on Park Street, Vachereau and Mill Street, asking occupants to evacuate. The order was later modified with the option “to shelter in place” and not go outside.

About 4p.m. the Franklin County Emergency Services Department also issued a bulletin that “due to the incident at Stewart’s” those people on those blocks should evacuate.

Several of the residents from the evacuated blocks went down to the community room of the Emergency Services Building to wait out the drama.

About 4p.m. the wind picked up and snow began to fall and it continued through the evening. With the mercury hovering in the mid-20s for those six hours, the falling snow added to the evening’s cold for the police officers and the volunteers manning the perimeter and the road blocks.

About 4:30p.m. a large armored vehicle of one of the state police special units arrived on the scene and parked in front of the building.

The community’s emergency director, Carl Steffen, monitored the incident from start to finish, spending some of that time making arrangements for temporary shelter for some of the evacuees, should the incident had gone through the night.

Within the first minutes after the police first arrived at Stewart’s, roadblocks were established at all the nearby intersections: at the top of Park St. at Chaney, at the top of Vachereau Street, at the intersection of High Street and Cliff, near the old fire station, at Park and Cliff and at the bottom of Mill at Lake. Manning those roadblocks were volunteer firefighters from the local fire department, although the top of narrow Vachereau was blocked with a truck.

The volunteers manned those roadblocks for the entire six hours, much of that time in the miserable snow and wind.

At each road block, law enforcement vehicles were intertwined with some private vehicles of the fire department members.

There were also temporary signs erected at places like the intersection of Boyer Ave. and Park Street, directing through traffic around the center of the village’s uptown.

After the village police first established the perimeter, there were several cars parked in the Stewart’s lot, next to the Free Press, where the owners were told they couldn’t be moved.

There were a handful of cars parked in the main block of the Park Street business district when the roadblocks were put up, but the owners were eventually permitted to drive them out of the cordoned off area.

During the hours of the stand-off New York State Police investigators and negotiators were in communication with Payrot, attempting to end the situation without incident, according to the press release.

About 9p.m. Payrot came out of the building, with one hand in the air and the other holding up his shirt to show he wasn’t carrying an explosive device or a weapon, at the direction of the negotiators. He was taken into custody by officers by officers of the state police Contaminated Crime Scene Emergency Response Team without incident. The state police bomb disposal unit officers, dressed in bomb protection gear, examined the device that Payrot had claimed to be explosive and determined it wasn’t.

Many of state special unit officers were in full camouflage body armor, with high powered rifles, also with camouflage markings.

Several times during the stand-off many of the police officers had their revolvers drawn and their assault rifles pointed at the store. Fortunately no shots were fire.

The alleged bomber was taken to the village police station in the emergency services building where he was processed and charged with the following: Making a Terrorist Threat, a D Felony, Placing a false bomb or hazardous substance in the second degree- a Class E Felony and Burglary in the second degree- a C Felony.

Payrot was arraigned in village court and remanded to the Franklin County Jail on $25,000 cash and $50,000 bond.

The village police action, with the assistance of the troopers and special state police units, was under the direction of Sgt. Jordan Nason. Police Chief Eric Proulx was out of town on vacation.

In the statement by the local PD, Sgt. Nason commended what he called “the heroic actions of all the officers who responded to this call.

“The incident that transpired was extremely dangerous and could have ended catastrophically if not for tremendous cooperative effort between the Tupper Lake Village Police, New York State Police and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation police.

“No one was physically harmed during this incident and that was the best outcome we could have hoped for,” he continued.

He also thanked the Tupper Lake Volunteer Fire Department “for assisting with the road closures and scene control, as well as the Tupper Lake Village Electric Department and Tupper Lake Ambulance and Emergency Squad who were standing by at our request.”

About 9:30p.m. that evening, after the roadblocks were removed by the volunteers and the police, the county emergency department issued its final bulletin, that people who live on those blocks could return to their homes.

During the event there were a number of acts of kindness by local citizens. The Wawbeek Quick Stop staff, for example, delivered hot coffee to police and volunteers. At the top of Park Street, 11 year old Erin Amell brought coffee, hot chocolate, danishes and roast chicken sandwiches she made out to the three firefighters manning a roadblock next to her house.

(Photos by Jim Lanthier)