January 25, 2020
Official Hingham Police Department Press Release
A Hingham man was arrested Saturday after barricading himself in his apartment and shooting at SWAT Officers. No one was injured. After over three hours of negotiations, the man gave himself up and was arrested without further incident.
On Saturday, January 25, 2020 at 6:19am Officers were dispatched to an apartment on HMS Fitzroy Drive in the Hingham Shipyard for a disturbance in an apartment. Arriving Officers spoke with a woman with two children in the lobby. They had been in the apartment and said the man had a handgun. Officers spoke to the man through the apartment door to attempt to have him come outside. The man threatened to shoot Officers through the walls and made statements about “suicide by cop”.
Another man then called 9-1-1 stating he was inside the apartment and that he had locked himself in a bedroom fearing for his life. Officers began evacuating nearby apartments and the Metro-LEC SWAT was called to the scene. Members of the SWAT team eventually used a Hingham Fire Department ladder truck to reach the 3rd floor bedroom and brought that man out a window to safety.
A reverse 9-1-1 and an emergency alert message text message were sent out in the area.
The barricaded man fired several shots from his apartment window at SWAT Officers who inside and were around the armored SWAT vehicle. No one was hit by the gunshots. He also threw and unexploded device onto his patio. No one was injured. Additional people were evacuated from additional apartments. After several hours of negotiations with members of the Metro-LEC Crisis Negotiation Team (CNT) the man agreed to surrender.
At 12:45pm he came outside his apartment and was arrested without incident. The apartment was searched for any additional explosives by the Massachusetts State Police Bomb Squad and residents were allowed back to their homes. Hingham Detectives obtained a search warrant for the apartment and recovered a semi-automatic handgun hidden in a ceiling vent.
Arrested was Pharaoh L. Yahtues, age 37, of 111 HMS Fitzroy Drive, Unit #304, Hingham, MA. He was charged with: 1) Armed Assault to Murder 2) Discharging an Explosive 3) Discharging Firearm within 500 feet of Building 4) Possession of Firearm without a License (2nd Offense) 5) Possession Ammunition without an FID card 6) Disturbing the Peace 7) Possession of Theft Detection Removal Device. These are preliminary and additional charges may be sought. A temporary warrant was issued for his arrest during this incident by the Probation Department because the GPS tracking device he had been ordered to wear was cut off. He is being held without bail and will be arraigned at Hingham District Court on Monday, January 27, 2020.
We are appreciative of the numerous agencies responded to assist in various phases of this incident including numerous police, fire, EMS and support services to assist in evacuations.