BLOOMINGBURG – An eight-hour standoff with state police ended without further bloodshed this past Saturday evening, when law enforcement officials employed a robot to enter the home of Stephen Fekete, 54, of 789 Roosa Gap Road in Bloomingburg. Earlier, Fekete had shot his wife, Elisabeta, in the shoulder during a domestic dispute, after which Mrs. Fekete fled to a neighbor, who then called 911.

Fekete shot his wife Elisabeta at approximately 10:15 a.m. after the couple had quarreled. The couple had experienced a history of domestic problems, neighbors say. Police negotiators, along with a SWAT team, arrived on the scene by 11:45 a.m. However, after some initial contact, Fekete refused, or was unable, to respond to pleas for him to surrender.

Shortly after this, police began to notice an aroma of propane, prompting officials to call in local firefighters. Police took the measure of shattering the windows of Fekete's house, which seemed to do the job of dissipating the toxic gas. While police refused to speculate on what Fekete might have had in mind, bystanders on the scene questioned whether Fekete may have intended to commit suicide, either by asphyxiation or explosion. Upon entering the house, a police robot found Fekete passed out on the floor. He was then taken into custody, and is being held without bail at the Orange Regional Medical Center's Horton Campus.

Captain Michael Cahill of the New York State Police said that as many as 60 officers responded to the scene, at which time they surrounded the home in an effort to prevent Fekete from slipping into the woods. While police had experienced some initial contact with Fekete, the fact that he stopped responding to police led them to believe that there was a possibility that he had passed out or had somehow escaped the residence. Cahill said at one point that they were "reasonably certain" he was still in his house, however.

"In a situation like this we go through methodical steps," Cahill said. "We don't want anyone additional to get hurt."

Cahill outlined some of the steps police take in this type of situation. These include the establishment of a perimeter around the house, intelligence-gathering about the structure in question, and attempts to make contact with the suspect in the hope that the situation can be resolved without making conditions more dangerous to residents and law enforcement personnel.

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