Dozens of police officers from the Louisiana State Police and the St. Tammany Sheriff's Office descended on a quiet neighborhood in Lacombe Thursday as a Lacombe man barricaded himself in his home after fleeing a state trooper during a routine traffic stop for not using a seat belt.

The standoff lasted for six hours and ended peacefully shortly after 5 p.m. when Donnie Brabham, 57, 61331 Pontchartrain Drive, Lacombe, surrendered to SWAT officers. Brabham was charged with aggravated flight from police, resisting arrest and not using his seatbelt.

The incident started around 11:45 a.m., according to Troop L spokesman, Trooper Louis Calato. A state trooper on patrol noticed Brabham not wearing his seat belt as he was turning west on U.S. Highway 190 from Louisiana Highway 434 in Lacombe.

Two members of the Louisiana State Police SWAT team walk toward the house on N. Pontchartrain Drive in Lacombe where a man barricaded himself Thursday afternoon. (Staff Photo by Erik Sanzenbach)

The trooper pulled Brabham over and walked to the car. Calato said the trooper told his superiors that Brabham started to act “nervous and standoffish.” The trooper also noticed a brown paper bag on the seat next to Brabham that was leaking a red liquid. Calato said the substance is being tested, and the State Police don't know what was in the bag.

“The trooper thought something was not right,” Calato said.

But before the officer could do anything, Brabham started yelling at the trooper, rolled up his window and took off at a high rate of speed, the tires spewing gravel at the trooper.

The trooper and his partner gave chase. Brabham turned into Pontchartrain Drive, got to his house at the corner of Mimosa Drive, and pulled into the front yard.

According to Calato, Brabham got out of the car and started to go into the house, stopped, came back to the car and grabbed the bag with the red liquid, then ran into his house.

Shortly after, two people ran out of the house. They were taken into custody by the troopers and questioned. Calato said the two people were roommates of Brabham, and they had nothing to do with the incident. He did not say why they ran out of the house and said one of the roommates was Brabham's “caregiver.”

The two roommates told police Brabham had an arrest record for several aggravated assaults, resisting arrest and carrying a weapon. The roommates also said there might be guns in the house. Calato said Brabham was also a veteran of the Vietnam War.

The troopers called in for backup, and soon Pontchartrain Drive was crowded with police cars from the State Police and the Sheriff's Office. Two blocks of Pontchartrain were closed to traffic. Neighbors came out of their houses and watched as SWAT teams from both agencies arrived and began gearing up.

“Both teams did a great job,” Calato said. “There was real cooperation.”

During the long standoff, the State Police and Sheriff's SWAT teams would switch out their posts to avoid getting overheated in the hot temperatures.

SWAT officers were able to get a telephone into Brabham's house, and negotiators began a long process of trying to get the man to surrender. At one point St. Tammany Sheriff Jack Strain got on a bullhorn and asked Brabham to give himself up.

Calato said Brabham was not belligerent nor angry with negotiators.

“He kept saying he wanted to come out,” Calato said. “But he was very scared and nervous. He didn't want to see anybody get hurt.”

Finally, after five hours of negotiating, Brabham surrendered to authorities and walked calmly out of his house in handcuffs.

Calato said a search of Brabham's home turned up several firearms, but he would not say what kind of guns were found. He said the investigation was continuing, and State Police want to know what Brabham had in the paper bag.

After Brabham was arrested, he was taken to a local hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, Calato said.