Mentor Standoff Ends After Six Hours

MENTOR, Ohio — Police convinced a man to come out of hiding after a six-hour standoff in Mentor.

The ordeal began around 6 p.m. on Thursday when officers responded to a disturbance at the Mentor Square Apartments.

According to the Mentor Police Department, the man they wanted to question jumped from a second story balcony and ran away.

The man, identified as 24-year-old Antonio Iaconianni, hid under a porch on Mansion Boulevard near Route 615 while neighbors watched police units and SWAT storm the area.

Dawn Argie said she was sitting outside and her husband was working in the yard as the entire thing unfolded across the street from their home.

“We thought they arrested (him), then we heard he went under the deck and about five minutes later SWAT arrived, tons of cops cars, and we were still sitting on the front step and an officer ran up and screamed at us to get in our house, lock the doors and get to the back of the house,” Argie explained.

About an hour later her family was told the leave their home out the back door and stay a safe distance away.

Mentor police say Iaconianni had a handgun with him, which he allegedly pointed at officers after they pepper sprayed him.

Police continued to negotiate with Iaconianni for hours until he finally surrendered just after midnight.

He is being held at the Mentor Police Department pending his arraignment on charges of aggravated menacing, obstructing official business and carrying a concealed weapon.