New details on eight hour armed standoff

Five Syracuse men are in custody, charged with three felonies each after a standoff in the city that lasted nearly eight hours. In the end, police had to deploy tear gas to get the suspects out of the home. Our Katie Gibas tells us how the situation unfolded.

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SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- It all started 11:45 p.m. Sunday when a 29-year-old woman was approached outside her home on West Matson Street. A man put a gun to her head and made her go inside the house. Three other men were inside and demanded money and other items from the victim.

"At one point, the victim started crying and one of the suspects actually put a handgun right in her mouth,” Syracuse Police Sergeant Tom Connellan said.

Police say the men put her in a closet and when they asked her to come out, she was able to run past two suspects and get out of the home. Police were already on scene, thanks to a neighbor who had seen the initial confrontation.

"Really a big thank you goes out to the neighbors who did the right thing, picked up the phone and called us initially and we were able to capture these guys," Connellan said.

A fifth man was arrested early on in a nearby getaway vehicle.

Police called in the SWAT team and they used tear gas to get the four other men out of the home. The first two men to come out tried to convince police that they were also victims, brought to the home against their will.

"Based on what we were getting from the woman, we had a pretty good idea that what they were telling us just wasn't true. And their story just really didn't add up. It was a nice try, but they didn't get it over on us," Connellan said.

Police had all five suspects in custody by 7:30 a.m. Monday.

All five men face felony charges of burglary, robbery and kidnapping: