Neighborhood Shaken After Man Barricades Himself

Burch Drive appeared calm and quiet Monday morning, only hours after the Morris Plains residents were evacuated when authorities responded to Sunday night.

According to the Morris County Prosecutor's Office, about 20 residents on Burch Drive were moved to the Morris Plains Borough School as a precaution, after a man on the street barricaded himself in his house. The incident closed Mountain Way in both directions leading to Burch Drive.

UPDATE: The 28-year-old Morris Plains man who barricaded himself faces weapons and criminal mischief charges, the Morris County Prosecutor's Office said.

Sarah Anderson, 30, was right next door to the incident, and was one of those residents evacuated.

On Monday, she said she still felt "traumatized" from the whole experience.

"There were cops everywhere," she said. "I've never seen that many cops with weapons like they had," she said.

Anderson, of Whippany, was only staying in the Burch Drive residence next door temporarily to dog sit for the owners. She first found out what was going on around 10 p.m., when officers knocked on the door and told her to turn off her lights and stay in her house.

Anderson said her initial reaction was that someone was trying to break into her house because she couldn't tell what was going on.

"Once I turned off all the lights and looked out the window, that's when I saw the cops everywhere," she said. "They didn't tell me anything else, so I just stayed my house," she said.

About a half-hour later, officers knocked on the back door and had Anderson evacuate the home. She said she ran to the front and the cops had her crawling on the grass.

Anderson ended up staying the night in her Whippany home after officers told her it was going to be a while before she could return. She got back to the Burch Drive home around 11 a.m. Monday.

Robert Clifford, 65, a neighbor who lives four houses down from the incident, said he wasn't evacuated and didn't know what was going on the whole night. He said he only heard officers telling residents to stay in their homes.

"Generally, it was pretty quiet," he said, "but then periodically you could hear some sounds from down there. It was very hard to make out what was going on."

Clifford, who has lived on Burch Drive since 1977, said he doesn't know the man who barricaded himself a few houses down, and said he can't ever remember this much action on his street.

"Nothing like this has ever happened before," he said. "This is easily the most excitement on this street in 40 years."

The couple who lives right across the street from the incident said they were evacuated, but declined to comment about their experience.

Other neighbors did not answer their doors on Monday morning or also declined to comment.

The prosecutor's office said the residents who were evacuated returned to their homes on Monday at 4 a.m.

According to Capt. Jeffrey Paul, a spokesman for Prosecutor Robert A. Bianchi, the Morris Plains man was taken to an area hospital for treatment. His identity has not been released, and charges were pending as of Monday afternoon, Paul said.

First responders from the , the Morris County Sheriff's Office Emergency Response Team (SERT), Morris County Prosecutor's Office Tactical Team, Crisis Negotiation Team (CNT), Major Crimes Unit, Morris County Park Police, and the Morris County Office of Emergency Management responded to the Burch Drive residence Sunday night around 8:30 p.m.