Stripper With Knife Stops Traffic on City Avenue, Police Say

An apartment resident's violent threats and eccentric behavior Wednesday afternoon—including wielding a large knife for hours and stripping naked during talks with police—prompted a massive law-enforcement response that kept part of City Avenue closed through evening rush hour, Philadelphia police told Patch.

The unidentified man was taken into custody about 6 p.m., having been stunned with a Taser gun just inside his front door, said Chief Inspector Joe Sullivan of the Philadelphia Police Department's Homeland Security Unit. It was unclear what charges he faced.

The incident started about 2:10 p.m. at a building on the Philadelphia side just south of the Cynwyd Line railroad tracks. Sullivan told Patch the man, a resident of the apartment building, was causing a disturbance in the building's management office that prompted a call to police.

Officers arrived to find the man had gone to his apartment on the north side of the building; he responded with violent threats to any attempts to get him out.

City Avenue was shut down between Conshohocken State Road and Bala Avenue from before 3 p.m. until about 6:20 p.m., making the evening rush hour a bigger headache for commuters who already faced wet roads from unseasonable snow.

Law enforcement and mental health authorities attempted to negotiate with the man several times, at various points shining lights into his window.

The man could be heard screaming indistinctly for several minutes about 5 p.m., and according to Sullivan, he stripped naked at another point in the negotiations.

About 6 p.m., the man was close to his front door when officers entered and stunned him with a Taser gun.

An ambulance was seen departing the scene soon after 6 p.m.; it was not clear whether the arrested man was in it.