A 45-year-old unnamed Albuquerque man shot himself after barricading himself in a house on the 200 block of Cornell Drive.
A SWAT standoff tied up the area around Cornell Drive and Lead Avenue for more than four hours yesterday.
A heavy police presence began building in the area at about 1 p.m., including more than 25 Albuquerque Police Department and SWAT team vehicles, the APD Mobile Community Substation and the K-9 unit.
Police at the scene said the man fired a gun in the early afternoon but would not say whether it was a warning shot.
APD crisis negotiators began communicating with the man they called Chris at about 2 p.m.
"Pick up your phone, Chris," negotiators said on a loudspeaker. "We're all here to help you. If there's anyone else in there, let us know if they're hurt. If you don't want to talk, exit through the front door with your hands up."
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Minutes later, police used a flash-bang grenade to distract the man and another bang was heard immediately after, APD spokesman Jeff Arbogast said.
Dozens of students returning home from UNM were turned away and told the area would be locked down for hours.
"I hope I can get in by tonight," UNM student Kevin Bowden said. "I hope the guy gets through this one. They brought some dogs in there. I hope that helps."
Arbogast said police dogs are used in situations where it would be too dangerous to send an officer in.
"It's much cheaper to get a dog shot than an officer shot," he said. "Even though if somebody uses deadly force against a dog we can use deadly force against them."
After 2 p.m., a car accident one block east of Cornell on Silver Avenue further tied up traffic, resulting in backed up lines of automobiles throughout the area.
There were no serious injuries in the accident, which involved a large truck and a car.
