Rocky Mount standoff suspect threatened officers

Robert Looney, 33, barricaded himself inside 717 Kinchen Drive in Rocky Mount when the U.S. Marshals Service attempted to serve a warrant on him for a Baltimore homicide. He was holding a hostage, a woman who lived at the home.

Rocky Mount police and crisis negotiators from the State Bureau of Investigation surrounded the home and communicated with Looney throughout the day until, in the late afternoon, Looney left the house, got in a vehicle and charged the officers, Jennifer Canada of the Attorney General’s Office said.

SBI Special Agent Adam Tanner shot at the vehicle, striking it and injuring Looney, Canada said. Looney was taken to Pitt Memorial Hospital in Greenville.

Looney release his hostage unharmed, authorities said. Police did not release the name of the woman. The owner of the house, Christee McNeil, identified her as Flora Greene.

Greene was living in the home with her cousin's family – a mother, father and four children, McNeil said.

McNeil said Greene is originally from Maryland, which is how she knows Looney.

A spokeswoman for FOX45 in Baltimore said Looney called their station from inside the Rocky Mount house four times Thursday morning and that he did something similar in 2007 when he barricaded himself in a West Baltimore home.

He was sentenced to five years in prison in that case and served two years, according to FOX45.