Standoff with ex-Pittsburgh firefighter ends after mother's recording played

PITTSBURGH — A man surrendered to police after a standoff in Brighton Heights that lasted for nearly three hours Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.

Investigators said the standoff with former Pittsburgh firefighter Marc Vrane started around 10 p.m. after several neighbors called to report that he was firing gunshots into trees.

“The dude had the door barricaded and he had a gun. He was going to kill himself. He wasn’t trying to come outside,” neighbor Derrick Grant said.

When police arrived, they said Vrane refused to come out of his Brandon Road house. During the standoff, police said Vrane threatened to hurt himself and officers.

Eventually, police said, they played a recording from his mother that got him to surrender peacefully.

"He also made requests to speak with his mother, and in order to accommodate that request, we had his mother tape a message that was scripted out for us, and then we played that message over our system. Immediately upon completion of that message, he called us and said he was willing to come out and surrender himself," said Pittsburgh police Cmdr. RaShall Brackney.

Brackney said authorities could see that Vrane had a knife, and they knew he owned multiple guns.

Vrane, who reportedly served in the military during Desert Storm, may suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, officials said. He was taken to Western Psychiatric Institute for treatment. There is no word on what charges, if any, he'll face.

WPXI