A police standoff with an armed and suicidal man ended peacefully after more than four hours yesterday in North Vernon.

North Vernon police report that they were called to the 300 block of Gilbert Street at about 5 p.m. Wednesday afternoon to check on the welfare of a man believed to be lying in bed holding a gun and considering suicide.

After police couldn’t get the man to respond by knocking on windows and doors, officers entered the home where they found the man in the bed with a gun pointed at his chest and his finger on the trigger.

Officers moved to a safer spot in the home and began negotiating with the man. North Vernon police were assisted in negotiations by the Jennings County Sheriff’s Department and the Indiana State Police. At about 9:30 p.m., the man surrendered to officers.

The man is being held on a preliminary charge of resisting law enforcement and is awaiting transportation to a mental health facility for an evaluation, police report.