SACO – Two Old Orchard Beach women and a New York man have been charged after a standoff Tuesday at an Ocean Park Road motel.
Police received a call around 2 a.m.Tuesday that two armed men were holding two women against their will in a room at the Brookside Motel, 30 Ocean Park Road, according to Saco Deputy Police Chief Jack Clements.
As police approached the motel room, a man jumped out of the back window of the motel and ran off. Police searched for the man with the help of the Wells Police Department K-9, but were unable to find him. Police found a .40 caliber semi-automatic handgun behind the motel room, according to Clements.
Police officers were able to make contact with the man who remained in the room, but he refused to leave.
“It quickly became clear that the subject was not going to surrender to law enforcement,” said Clements.
Clements said a request was made to the Maine State Police for assistance, based on the nature of the call, the refusal of the man to leave the motel room, the report of potential hostages and the location of a gun where one of the room inhabitants had fled.
About 4:15 a.m., Michelle Mendoza, 38, of Old Orchard Beach, came out of the motel room and surrendered to law enforcement, said Clements. She was taken to the Saco Police Department and later charged with violating conditions of release, according to Clements.
Mendoza gave police information that contradicted what law enforcement had originally been told, said Clements. Saco Police detectives discovered the two women were likely not being held against their will, but the circumstances surrounding why they would not come out of the room are still unknown, said Clements.
Saco Police with assistance from the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency obtained a search warrant for the premises and entered the room. The man and woman remaining in the room were escorted out by police around 9 a.m.
Jessie Tulley, 35, of Old Orchard Beach, was arrested on three outstanding failure to appear warrants for traffic offenses.
The man in the room with Tulley had no identification and provided false information regarding his identity. He was later identified as John Felipe, 21, of the Bronx, New York. Felipe was arrested for failure to provide identification and was also summonsed for creating a police standoff.
The identity of the man who ran away from the motel room was unknown at press time and police are still investigating the incident.
— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 325 or egotthelf@journaltribune.com.
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