'Standoff' turns out to be false alarm

A nearly five-hour barricade situation at a Hyattsville auto shop ended without incident Friday after police entered the building and found no one inside, authorities said.

Police were called to the shop in the 4700 block of Crittenden Street about 7:30 a.m. after a man called to report that he had been flagged down by another man, who told him people who might have been armed had went inside, said Greg Phillips, a Hyattsville police spokesman.

Officers secured the area but were unable to determine whether anyone was in the shop, so they called the Greenbelt emergency services team, he said.

Still unable to make contact with anyone in the building, the emergency services team entered about noon, according to police and witnesses. They found no one inside and are in the process of interviewing those involved to determine exactly what happened, Phillips said.

-- Matt Zapotosky