Riled man's gun waving leads to 6-hour standoff

ST. PETERSBURG -- A six-hour standoff in the 400 block of Fourth Avenue N ended early Wednesday when police persuaded an armed man to come out of his apartment.

Brian Kelly, 45, of 435-1/2 Fourth Ave. N, Apt. 2, was arrested at 1:05 a.m. and charged with five counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Several residents of the Lee Plaza apartment complex were outside drinking beer and playing Frisbee just before 6 p.m. Tuesday when Kelly became upset over something and went into his apartment.

"He goes into his apartment and comes out waving a gun and threatening to shoot everybody," said George Kajtsa, a spokesman for the St. Petersburg Police Department.

When police arrived, Kelly went into his apartment, where he remained for six hours, police said. Three people from Kelly's four-unit apartment building were evacuated, as were about a dozen from a nearby apartment building.

"It became like a marathon," Kajtsa said. "There were two points where he came to the door to come out, then changed his mind. Half the time he talked to us incoherently, but eventually he ended up coming out."

After police arrested Kelly, they discovered a BB gun in his apartment.

"Why did we charge him with aggravated assault if it was just a BB gun?" Kajtsa said. "The fact that folks saw the gun aimed at them and didn't know it was a BB gun, and it put fear in them; that's why. The law says if you put someone in fear of their life, that's aggravated assault. They thought it was a real gun."

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