Trenton Police and Gilchrist County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to a hostage situation in Trenton early Saturday morning.
Law enforcement officers responded to NW 4th Ave. in Trenton. There were reports of a subject armed with a knife and a gun holding nine hostages, three adults and six children, according to a Trenton Departmet of Public Safety Facebook post.
Command staff immediately requested assistance from the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office SWAT and hostage negotiation teams.
GCSO and DPS officers were able to make contact with the suspect, who told officers he would start “taking lives” if law enforcement tried to enter the home, according to the post.
The negotiators were able to convince the suspect to release the hostages and exit the home without incident before the teams from Alachua County arrived at the scene.
All of the hostages were out of the house at 8:46 a.m., nearly four hours after units were dispatched to the house.
The suspect was identified as Elmer Lane Jr., 32, of Trenton.
Lane was arrested on one count of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, three counts of kidnapping/false imprisonment of an adult, six counts of kidnapping/false Imprisonment of a child under 13 and six counts of child neglect.
He was booked into the Gilchrist County Jail