Crime & Safety

Guardsman ID'd After Lower Pottsgrove Standoff

Law enforcement from throughout the area responded to the incident on Wednesday, which also closed local schools.

Officials have released the identity of the National Guardsman who was found dead inside his Lower Pottsgrove home Wednesday, after a near-six hour standoff with police that evacuated local schools.

The Montgomery County Coroner’s office performed an autopsy on Thomas A. Hripto, 37, a Pennsylvania National Guardsman who was believed to be AWOL after failing check in with the organization since Friday, according to the Pottstown Mercury.

When National Guard officials and police approached Hripto’s home on the 1300 block of Lynn Drive at 11:45 a.m. Wednesday for a wellbeing check, they heard a gunshot. Not knowing if it was directed at them, a nearly-six hour standoff began, involving the ChesMont Emergency Response Team (CMERT) and SWAT, according to a previous Patch report.

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A perimeter was placed around the neighborhood, and children attending summer activities at schools nearby were evacuated.

Around 5 p.m., Hripto was found dead on the second floor of the home.

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Hripto was a member of the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the 28th Infantry Division of the National Guard, and had been deployed to Kosovo as part of a NATO peacekeeping mission, and was on active duty during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, according to the Mercury


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