Friend: ‘I want him to come out alive’
Published 7:43 pm Monday, February 20, 2012
Daily Star photo/CRAIG HAUPERT Local law enforcement have been at a standoff on Redfield Road, east of Edwardsburg, for several hours.
EDWARDSBURG — A Niles woman said she is “scared to death” for her friend involved in a standoff under way on Redfield Road.
Police are trying to bring about a peaceful resolution to a standoff with an armed man, Mike Long, who barricaded himself in his ex-wife’s home southeast of Edwardsburg this morning.
Joanie Peterson befriended Long a couple months ago.
“We started talking and we’ve been together ever since,” Peterson said via phone from the barricaded area.
Peterson said she is not dating Long.
Peterson said Long has been in a dispute with his ex-wife over their daughter. Peterson received a text message from Long at 5:30 a.m. today that “basically said goodbye.”
Long’s ex-wife left the house earlier today.
“He would never, ever hurt her,” Peterson believes.
“I consider him a very dear friend. I don’t want this written up as another crazy man in Edwardsburg with a gun,” she said. “I’m scared to death. I want him to come out alive. I want him to be OK. He’s distraught and he is broken.”
