Three people were arrested Tuesday following a bizarre SWAT standoff at a Conyers pawn shop over the weekend, authorities said.
Rockdale County deputies responded to the Pawn Depot on Old Covington Highway about 11:15 a.m. Saturday after receiving a call about a person being held against their will, sheriff’s office spokesman Deputy Lee Thomas said in a news release.
When they arrived, the owner of the pawn shop, identified as 50-year-old Randall Langbecker of Conyers, refused to cooperate with law enforcement, prompting an hourslong standoff, authorities said.
Deputies requested a warrant to search to the building because Langbecker refused to come out, and investigators couldn’t tell if anyone was actually being held hostage, Thomas said.
After several hours of speaking with a negotiator, Langbecker emerged from the store and appeared to be inebriated, authorities said. A SWAT team entered the building and determined nobody inside was being held against their will.
On Tuesday, deputies returned to the pawn shop to execute the search warrant, seizing several hundred guns, an assortment of illegal narcotics and a large amount of cash, Thomas said.
Langbecker was taken into custody on drug charges and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, deputies said Wednesday. Two others — 42-year-old Paul Morgan and 22-year-old Taylor Jett — were also arrested at the scene.
Both Morgan and Jett were charged with violating Georgia’s controlled substances act, and Morgan faces an additional charge of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, according to police.
The sheriff’s office did not say what types of drugs were recovered from the pawn shop, only that investigators are still processing evidence and that the narcotics seized still need to be tested. It’s also unclear who called in the hostage situation that prompted Saturday’s standoff.
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