Standoff ends with surrender

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Photo by Katie Barnes / Monitor staff

Lieutenant Chris Cost with the Belknap County Sheriff's Department prepares to search 672 Union Road in Belmont after a police standoff finally ended at 7 am on Friday morning, Sept. 3, 2010 after several hours of attempting to apprehend residents suspected of being in possession of firearms with a four-year-old child in the house. At 3:18 am multiple gunshots were heard from inside of the house, and at 7 am Christopher Kelly surrendered himself and the child, who's mother was Alisha Morgan, 29, was also in the house earlier. Kelly, 33, along with Morgan and Diamond Morrill, 20, were arrested. Morgan attempted to return to her residence around 10:15 am with a friend after being released on bail. She was told by authorities that she was not allowed to enter her rental property. Morgan was charged with one count of Hindering Apprehension, Morrill was charged with three counts of Felony Reckless Conduct, Resisting Detention, and one count of Endangering the Welfare of a Child. Kelly was charged with parole violations and still being held in NH State Prison in Concord.Purchase photo reprints at PhotoExtra »

Photo by Katie Barnes / Monitor staff

Alisha Morgan, left, is supported by friends after she is told she can't enter her rental property after an all-night standoff with police in Belmont on Friday, Sept. 3, 2010. The police standoff finally ended at 7 am this morning after several hours of attempting to apprehend Morgan's boyfriend, Christopher Kelly, 33, who was suspected of having firearms while Morgan's four-year-old child was in the house. At 3:18 am multiple gunshots were heard from inside of the house, and at 7 am Christopher Kelly surrendered himself and the child. Kelly, 33, along with Morgan, and Diamond Morrill, 20, were arrested. Morgan was charged with one count of Hindering Apprehension, Morill was charged with three counts of Felony Reckless Conduct, Resisting Detention, and one count of Endangering the Welfare of a Child. Kelly was charged with parole violations and still being held in NH State Prison in Concord.Purchase photo reprints at PhotoExtra »

Graphic by Charlotte Thibault / Concord Monitor

Map shows 672 Union Road in Belmont, scene of standoff. By Charlotte Thibault. 9/3/2010Purchase photo reprints at PhotoExtra »

An armed standoff at a Belmont house ended peacefully yesterday morning with the surrender of a resident wanted as a fugitive.

Christopher Kelly, 33, left the Union Road house more than eight hours after members of the U.S. Marshal's Joint Fugitive Task Force arrived to arrest him on numerous parole violation charges, according to Belknap County Sheriff Craig Wiggin. Two women who were in the house with Kelly were arrested in connection with the standoff, according to the sheriff's department.

Law enforcement officers learned shortly after arriving that a 4-year-old girl was inside the house, and so they were "very patient" in their attempts to arrest Kelly, Wiggin said.

"We're very concerned for the safety of everybody in there," Wiggin said. "We proceeded very cautiously and thankfully resolved this situation safely and got that little girl and everybody else out of there without anyone getting hurt."

Kelly entered the New Hampshire State Prison in Concord in April 2008 to serve at least two years for the sale, possession and manufacture of cocaine, according to Jeff Lyons, spokesman for the state Department of Corrections. Kelly was released on parole in August 2009, but a warrant was issued for his arrest as a fugitive from justice in March after he stopped showing up for substance abuse counseling and did not respond to a parole officer's attempts to find him, Lyons said.

Members of the U.S. Marshal's force arrived before 11 p.m. Thursday and confirmed that Kelly was at the house, along with several other people, Wiggin said. The Belknap Regional Special Operations Group then arrived and used loudspeakers to broadcast its presence. Not long after, Alisha Morgan, who said she is Kelly's girlfriend and the mother of the girl, left the house and was arrested on charges of hindering the effort to arrest Kelly, Wiggin said.

Morgan said in an interview that she left the house when she saw flashing lights and told the law enforcement officials she would bring them inside. She said the police then pushed her to the ground and shackled her.

"I asked if I could help anybody because I didn't know who they were," Morgan said. "That's when they ran at me with guns and tackled me to the ground and told me to shut . . . up. I was completely cooperative the whole time. I even offered to walk them into my house."

Wiggin said Morgan had not been tackled. He said he would not respond to other statements by her.

Officials spent the next several hours asking Kelly to surrender, and at about 3:18 a.m., several gunshots were fired from inside the house, Wiggin said. Members of the state police SWAT team were then called to the scene. Officials are still investigating who fired the shots. Wiggin said no shots were fired by law enforcement officers.

A negotiator persuaded Kelly to surrender about 7 a.m., Wiggin said. The child was released at the same time. Afterward, officials determined that Diamond Morrill, 20, was still in the house. Morrill, who told officials she has no permanent address, surrendered and was arrested on three felony counts of reckless conduct by resisting detention and one count of endangering the welfare of a child, according to the sheriff's department.

Kelly was not charged yesterday with any crime in connection with the standoff. Wiggin said officials are still investigating.

Morgan, 29, was booked and released on $1,000 personal recognizance bail. After her release this morning, she returned to Union Road, barefoot and wearing the pajamas she was arrested in. She tried to pass the yellow crime scene tape blocking the property.

"Do not cross that line. You're going to be arrested," an official from the Belknap County Sheriff's Department told her.

"That's my house," Morgan said.

Morgan returned to the friend who had driven her and began to cry. "I didn't do anything wrong," she said.

She said her daughter had been taken and given to the girl's father. Wiggin said the Belmont police had taken the girl. Belmont police dispatcher Danielle Gilbert said the department would not release any information about the girl's location.

Morgan told reporters Kelly had not known the police were looking for him.

"He didn't even know he was wanted," she said.

The doors stood open at the small gray house even before members of the sheriff's department received a warrant and began searching the property. The grass was overgrown, and a birdfeeder hung before the front door. Signs of a child marked the home: a small pink bicycle with training wheels stood beside a sport utility vehicle, and a small white bear and cutout letters spelling "smile" were visible through a second-story window.

Morgan said in an interview that Kelly had spoken on the phone with his mother throughout the night. Morgan said Kelly's mother told her yesterday that Kelly had not surrendered earlier because he did not want to endanger Morgan's daughter.

"Chris did not want to bring her out because of the guns," she said. "Regardless of what he might have done in the past, he's good with kids. He does have a heart."

Morgan said Kelly moved last week into the house she has rented for nearly two years. She disputed the statement that New Hampshire had issued a warrant for Kelly's arrest, saying he had been in jail in Virginia three weeks ago but was released without charge when the police there found no warrants in his name. (next page »)