A large law enforcement response was gathered around a city apartment complex Friday afternoon.
NEWARK -- A 64-year-old man was subdued by a SWAT team and removed from his apartment after he stabbed his wife, ending a more than four-hour standoff with police Friday, authorities said.
After the man, who was allegedly holding a "large knife" to his chest, moved to stab himself, Newark Police SWAT team members subdued him with a non-lethal weapon, city Public Safety Director Anthony Ambrose said at the scene of the incident Friday afternoon. The SWAT team could be seen pulling the man from his apartment building. He was not injured.
Officers put the man on a stretcher, and transported him via ambulance for a psychiatric evaluation, officials said.
"I commend the SWAT team," Ambrose told NJ Advance Media after the standoff. "They used great restraint."
The removal of the man marked the culmination of an hours-long police response after the man allegedly stabbed his wife multiple times, and then refused to leave their apartment at the Wynona Lipman Gardens complex as police responded.
According to Ambrose, the man allegedly stabbed his wife in the chest at around 11:20 a.m. inside the apartment they share off of 7th Avenue. The woman was removed from the home and is in critical condition at University Hospital, Ambrose said.
7th Avenue was shut down to accommodate the large police response Friday afternoon. (Noah Cohen | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)The man, who is not being identified, was barricaded in the apartment holding a knife to himself, authorities said.
In a statement Friday night, officials added two Good Samaritans also helped the wife escape from the apartment as officers arrived at the scene.
The couple's 9-year-old grandson was also inside the apartment at the time of the alleged stabbing, but was able to get out uninjured, Ambrose said.
Newark police special operations, several ambulances, and other police units were part of the large response that shut down 7th Avenue Friday afternoon. Members of the SWAT team were seen talking to the man at the door of the couple's Dillard Court apartment on and off for hours. A handful of residents of the complex stopped to watch the scene unfold.
Additional details on the circumstances surrounding the incident and investigation were not immediately available, though police said they were not immediately aware of a history of domestic violence between the couple.
Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @noahyc. Find NJ.com on Facebook.