Ten Gainesville Police Department officers wielding rifles, handguns and Tasers surrounded an apartment in a tense standoff that lasted over an hour Sunday night at The Polos of Gainesville.
The scene ended in a dog bite, a Taser and the arrest of 30-year-old Neil Greishaw, who had pulled a semiautomatic handgun on a Polos resident, according to Sergeant Mike Schentrup.
Police arrived after the resident reported that Greishaw, who was visiting the apartment, was drunk, on drugs and had threatened her.
While police officers waited outside, Greishaw paced in front of the window with a butcher knife, Schentrup said.
Greishaw finally stepped out the front door, but he refused officers' orders to keep his hands visible, Schentrup said.
"It's not like he walked out with his hands up," Schentrup said. "He wasn't listening to what we were telling him, and we knew he'd had two weapons."
Greishaw tried to go back inside, but Officer Charles Owens sent a police canine, Justice, to bite Greishaw and keep him from going back into the apartment. Police then Tasered Greishaw and arrested him.
After the arrest, police realized that Greishaw was unarmed and had dropped his gun near the door of the apartment.
On the lawn of surrounding apartments, a handful of neighbors watched.
"I heard yelling and screaming, and then I heard cops sirens," said Michelle Martin, a UF business management junior. "Then I saw the canine and their guns drawn. It was loud."
Schentrup said officers found marijuana in the apartment.
Greishaw was charged with aggravated assault with a firearm and resisting arrest without violence. He was taken by ambulance to Shands Hospital, Shentrup said.
