METHUEN — The mother of a Methuen man who barricaded himself in his house with a loaded shotgun died of an apparent heart attack last night soon after helping police try to coax her son to give himself up.
Darren Salvatore Coco, 41, of 5 Peever St., surrendered peacefully to a SWAT team of the North East Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council (NEMLEC) shortly after 8 p.m., ending a standoff of more than three hours.
About an hour after Coco's arrest, police were called to his mother's home at 22 Sevoian Drive where EMTs used a defibrillator in efforts to revive 69-year-old Virginia Coco. She was rushed to Caritas Holy Family Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
"She died because of all of what happened today," Kimberly Coco told The Eagle-Tribune when reached at home last night by phone. She said her father, Salvatore Anthony Coco, accompanied her mother to the standoff scene and was with her when she died in the hospital. Her husband is a former Lawrence police officer.
Darren Coco was being held last night in a locked cell at the Methuen Police Department. He was due to be arraigned in Lawrence District Court this morning on charges of assault with a dangerous weapon (a shotgun) and illegal possession of a firearm.
According to the Methuen street list, Darren Coco is disabled. Police said they were unaware of any prior criminal record for Darren Coco.
Virginia Coco was at the standoff scene along with other family members, providing information to police about her son to help coax him out safely, a source close to the investigation said. She told police she was "embarrassed" about the incident while being escorted to the police command post.
Frustrated that Darren Coco refused to communicate with police, SWAT team members entered the Peever Street home where they encountered no resistance, according to police.
"He ignored all our attempts at contact," said Methuen police Lt. Greg Gallant.
"We used a bullhorn and tried to reach him on his cell phone. But there was no communication with him," Gallant said.
Police said it was a potentially dangerous situation for the normally quiet neighborhood not far from Merrimack Street, near Interstate 495.
"He had a fully loaded shotgun and had it ready. He had quite a bit of ammunition for the shotgun as well," Gallant said.
"At times, he pointed the shotgun at the officers from the second floor," he said.
But no shots were fired. Gallant said Darren Coco could face other charges as the investigation continues.
The standoff began at 4:35 p.m. when police were called to Peever Street to investigate a domestic disturbance.
Methuen Officers Jamie Moore and Shaun Cronin found a 13-year-old boy and 15-year-old girl when they entered the home. They went upstairs but left the house with the two children after noticing Darren Coco brandishing a shotgun, according to Gallant.
Methuen police officers responded en masse within minutes, setting up a perimeter around the house, closing off nearby streets and evacuating residents from nearby homes in preparation for the SWAT team's arrival.
Police said Coco's wife was not at home at the time.
"The Methuen officers, under the direction of Lt. Gallant, did a fantastic job as far as shutting down the streets and evacuating the surrounding houses to help prepare the scene for NEMLEC," Methuen police Chief Katherine Lavigne said.
"And NEMLEC did a great job in bringing this to a safe conclusion," Lavigne said.
The neighborhood, which includes Peever, Bates and Dexter streets, is off East Street, not far from Interstate 495.
Police said people in adjacent homes were evacuated as a precaution. One neighbor saw a man who uses a wheelchair evacuated from his home along with his wife.
A man told police that his brother-in-law had too much to drink and barricaded himself in a room in the house after he had an argument with another occupant.
But, late last night, police said the incident remained under investigation and would not comment on what may have provoked Darren Coco's behavior.
His family members were escorted into one of two buses made available to police by the Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority.
One resident said she saw a woman running from the area yelling, "My kids are OK. My kids are OK."
Police were using the parking lot of the nearby Sahara Club as a staging area for the SWAT team and police officers.
"The whole neighborhood is crazy," one caller told The Eagle-Tribune soon after the incident attracted neighborhood attention. She said there were more than a half-dozen police vehicles in the Sahara Club parking lot, including a bus, a mobile home type vehicle and at least one ambulance.
At 6 p.m., Katherine Lennon of 96 Oak St. told The Eagle-Tribune that police are going around the neighborhood telling residents to stay inside. "They said it is a situation where a man has barricaded himself inside a house."
Lennon said police cruisers from as far away as Waltham and Concord are parked outside her house.
"I've never seen so many police in one spot. They are suiting up outside."
"They are dressed like snipers," Lennon said.
She said some neighbors were disregarding orders by police to stay inside.
"I'm not going out. I'm too scared," she said.
Another neighbor said, "All I see is SWAT teams. There are cops from Lawrence, Haverhill, North Andover and other places."
Lennon recalled that "the neighbors were all freaking out."
"We were all shutting our lights out and locking our doors. It was scary, like something out of a television movie. It was weird to have all this stuff going on in a quiet suburban area - SWAT teams and police all around the place and people being evacuated from their homes. There was one rumor that the guy had a bomb. Thank God it ended without anyone getting hurt," she said.
SWAT team members huddled inside the Sahara Club while curious spectators shivered in the cold, looking for answers for the massive police mobilization and road blocks that kept some from getting to their homes.
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