A welfare check on a Mount Penn home whose owner hadn’t been seen for weeks — and was later found dead in the basement — turned into an hours-long ordeal Wednesday afternoon, drawing the local fire company and a tactical team trained in high-risk entry.
The events unfolded shortly before 3 p.m. after a neighbor in the 100 block of Hollywood Avenue requested that Central Berks Regional police check on the 45-year-old male homeowner who lived alone, Chief Justin Johnson said Thursday.
“They were concerned because they hadn’t seen or heard from him in a couple of weeks, and mail was piling up,” Johnson said.
Officers found the house locked and got no response, so they contacted a relative who entered the home and allowed officers to enter. That was about 90 minutes after the neighbors’ call, he said.
The relatives led officers to every room in the house, calling for the man. Finally, when the relative opened the basement door to call for him, there was a flash of fire, Johnson said.
The cause of that fire hasn’t been identified.
“At that point we were uncertain if someone was setting us up with a booby trap,” Johnson said. “Everyone pulled back to do their stuff.”
Police summoned the Berks County Emergency Response Team, a tactical unit, as well as Mount Penn Fire Company.
Police evacuated a few homes on the same side of the block as the house and took to social media to ask the public to stay away from the immediate area of the incident, which lies in the heart of Mount Penn.
By then, the nearby Antietam School District’s Kerry C. Hoffman Intermediate School had let out for the day, but some students and personnel were still there for after-school activities, Johnson explained. Officers eventually led the students out of the building to the custody of parents or guardians.
As evening approached, the tactical team entered the basement and found the homeowner dead of a self-inflicted gunshot, Johnson said. The Berks County coroner’s office was summoned.
Shortly after 6 p.m., Central Berks police posted on their Facebook page: “The scene is secured, and there is NO threat to the public. Thank you for your patience!”
Johnson said the cause of the fire remains under investigation but that investigators have determined there was no booby trap.