BAINBRIDGE – A three-hour standoff between New York State Police and a Bainbridge man who was allegedly holding his wife against her will ended without shots being fired.

At approximately 11:40 a.m. Thursday, a man identified by neighbors as Michael D. Richardson, 33, surrendered to police outside his residence at 6 Johnson St. in the Village of Bainbridge.

“They came out willingly after a period of time,” reported New York State Police Captain James E. Barnes, who was one of more than 20 law enforcement officers on the scene.

Police were alerted to the potential hostage situation at 8:21 a.m. when a call was placed by a relative to the Chenango County 911 center reporting a domestic dispute, Barnes said.

Officers arrived on the scene shortly thereafter and established a perimeter, blocking off several side streets and a portion of State Route 7.

While residents in the houses immediately surrounding Richardson’s row house were escorted from their homes, Barnes said no larger-scale evacuation was undertaken. State Police did, however, request that the railroad cease operation along the portion of line running through the village during the incident.

According to Karl Brown, superintendent of the Bainbridge-Guilford Central School District, both the district’s high school/middle school campus and Greenlawn Elementary were placed on “lock out.” This decision was made by school administrators as a precautionary measure, he stated in a phone interview yesterday.