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Swordsman in custody after police standoff

Philadelphia police peacefully negotiated the surrender of a man who threatened his parents, and later police, with a samurai sword at his Juniata Park house Thursday, and who then ran back into his house alone, authorities said.

Philadelphia police peacefully negotiated the surrender of a man who threatened his parents, and later police, with a samurai sword at his Juniata Park house Thursday, and who then ran back into his house alone, authorities said.

Chief Inspector Joseph Sullivan said that the 40-year-old man lived in the house on the 4300 block of K Street with his parents. Earlier in the morning, the man allegedly threatened his parents with the sword in the house, prompting someone to call 911, Sullivan said.

When 24th District officers arrived to the house at 11:05 a.m., the parents were outside.

The officers spotted the man outside on his steps with the three-foot-long samurai sword in its sheath.

The man pulled out the sword, and "had it in his hand in a menacing manner," and took a step toward a police officer, Sullivan said. That's when the officer tased the man, Sullivan said.

But the taser "had no effect," Sullivan said.

The man removed the taser's prongs from his body and rushed back into his house alone, taking the sword with him, Sullivan said.

Police then set up a barricade around the house at 11:20 a.m. The Philadelphia Police Department's Homeland Security Unit and SWAT team responded to the house. Negotiators were able to call the man on the phone and spoke with him for about 45 minutes, Sullivan said.

They calmed him, Sullivan said. The man then did as he was told and came out peacefully and was taken into custody at 12:34 p.m., Sullivan said.

The man, whose name was not immediately released, was expected to face aggravated-assault charges in relation to the threats to his parents and the police officer, the East Detective Division said. The sword was recovered from the house.

shawj@phillynews.com

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@julieshawphilly