Man held girlfriend, 11 children in motel room

DeKalb County interim Police Chief James Conroy tells WSB-TV (http://bit.ly/1SwUZux) the man was armed with a knife. As SWAT entered they discovered the male suspect had stabbed himself in the neck.

A woman and 11 children are being held hostage at a motel in Georgia, NBC station WXIA reported, and a standoff is underway.

Authorities had surrounded the motel as the man refused to leave a room, prompting concerns about the safety of several children inside, police said.

No one else in the room was injured.

The situation ended at approximately 7 a.m. Tuesday morning when a SWAT team engaged the man after someone inside the room opened the door, according to reports from Channel 2 Action News in Atlanta.

There were no other injuries and the suspect was transferred to hospital, police said. He faces charges of false imprisonment and obstruction.

The relationship between Thomas, the woman and children was not immediately clear, police said. Only the 2015 armed robbery and aggravated assault case appears in the county’s online court records.

The incident went down in a room at the Rite4Us Inn & Suites in Decatur.