A 32-year-old man who threatened his wife with a deadly weapon and held off authorities for three hours, was arrested Thursday in an apartment in the 8500 block of Palmetto Drive where he threatened to blow up both himself and the building, according to spokesperson Tracy Panus

The standoff began Thursday morning when neighbors reported a smell of gas and a disturbance by a man wielding a gun. When Affton police arrived, the suspect was already gone. They left and entered the man as a wanted person as emergency personnel and Laclede Gas attended to the smell of gas and determined that there was no danger.

Police were called back to the house about three hours later and waited until about 10 a.m. to go inside, only the find the suspect was not there. It’s believed that he ran into the house and out the back door before tactical team members arrived.  The man was arrested about an hour later at an apartment building behind the house. No one at the apartment building was hurt, and it is unclear if police recovered a weapon.   The man’s wife is safe and the suspect has not been identified. He will be charged with a variety of charges later according to a copyrighted article in the St Louis Post Dispatch.