Area police did an outstanding job Tuesday morning during a short but dangerous standoff in Stroudsburg. They nabbed their man with no one hurt.

The scary scenario unfolded like a made-for-television movie right outside the doors of this newspaper. A 14-year-old girl called police around 7:30 Tuesday morning saying a man had kidnapped her at gunpoint from her Middle Smithfield Township home early Tuesday morning and raped her in a room at the Budget Host Inn room. She had gotten out of the room somehow. She also told police the man had a gun.

Stroud Area Regional Police responded, approaching the room of the accused man, 27-year-old Derek J. Bengtsson. Police said Bengtsson fired shots as they reached the room door, trapping one officer in the bathroom and prompting the others to pull back and alert the special response team.

Within minutes, police from all over had surrounded the hotel, warned neighbors to stay inside and blocked traffic from the area. Negotiators also arrived and went to work. By 9:20 a.m., without another shot fired, Bengtsson surrendered.

Assisting SARP were officers from the Pocono Mountain Regional Police, state police at Swiftwater, the Monroe County Sheriff's office and the Monroe County District Attorney's office. Domestic relations officers were on hand, with Stroudsburg Fire Department volunteers and the MedEvac helicopter on standby. Pocono Township Police helped handle the routine police calls that continued coming in for SARP during the standoff.

It takes good training, constant readiness and good instincts to react thoroughly and professionally to a crisis like this one and to end it without anyone getting hurt. Credit goes to SARP and to all the other officers and department officials who participated, cooperating smoothly. They risked their own lives while keeping their heads in a life-threatening situation.

With Bengtsson under arrest, the District Attorney's office can pursue this alarming case through the legal channels. Meanwhile, local residents should feel confident that law enforcement in Monroe County is second to none.

-Pocono Record