The home of Gary McCartney. SUN-GAZETTE PHOTO

HUGHESVILLE — The gunman who was killed late Saturday night following a lengthy standoff with state police at his mobile home on Boak Avenue has been identified as Gary Lee McCartney, 62, according to a news release issued Monday afternoon by the Troop F barracks.

Using a public address system, troopers tried for several hours unsuccessfully to get him to surrender.

“They (the officers) just wanted to talk with him. They told him again and again ‘We’re here to help you. We don’t want to see you hurt yourself. We don’t want to see you hurt.’ He put a sign in one of his windows that he was the only one in the trailer and at the bottom of the sign it said ‘Kill me,'” according to one neighbor, a 26-year-old mother of two, who only gave her first name as Mia.

Troopers were dispatched to the neighborhood about 2:40 p.m. to investigate a disturbance. They soon learned that McCartney, who lived alone, allegedly threatened a man who was working on a neighbor’s mobile home, police said. McCartney pulled out a handgun and shook it at the worker who then fled the scene in a vehicle as McCartney told him “If you come over here, you’re leaving in a body bag,” according to a court document.

A neighbor who witnessed this told McCartney to “take his gun and go back inside” his home, police said. “Why don’t you come over here and (expletive) make me,” McCartney told the neighbor, who then called 911, the court document stated.

Numerous additional troopers rushed to the trailer court.

“When the police arrived, they tried to negotiate with him for quite a while. ‘Come out. We don’t want to do harm to you or your home,'” a 21-year-old male neighbor said he heard a trooper say over the speaker. The negotiations lasted for hours.

“Police had an armored truck right in front of my trailer. It was pretty intense. There was a SWAT team, K-9 units, at least two drones flying overhead. There was a police sniper right on my porch. There were two others nearby,” said the young man, who did not give his name.

Early in the standoff, McCartney managed to run out his back door, around a few trailers and then back into his home, according to Mia.

During the standoff, police evacuated several surrounding trailers as a precautionary measure.

“At one point, McCartney appeared at a front window of his trailer and fired one round from his handgun at state police,” police said in the news release. “Additional attempts to have McCartney surrender were unsuccessful. McCartney re-appeared at the front window and again pointed his firearm at state troopers. At this time, a member of a special emergency response team fired one shot at McCarney, causing fatal injuries.”

It was believed the standoff ended about 9:30 p.m., police said.

Lycoming County Coroner Charles E. Kiessling Jr. was soon notified. He and a deputy coroner responded and pronounced McCartney dead at the scene.

Mia, who said she had befriended McCartney for several years, believed he was “pushed over the edge by being tormented by kids and other people. I had daily conversations with him. He really was a kind man. I don’t think he would hurt a fly. He just wanted to be left alone.”

She and a second neighbor said McCartney struggled much of his life after witnessing years ago his school-aged son get struck and killed by a motorist while the son was riding a bicycle.

In describing the scene during the standoff, Mia said “this whole road was swarmed with officers, SWAT, many were in military uniforms. There were truckloads of officers in here (the trailer court).

“I kept hearing the officers say ‘No Gary, No Gary, put the gun down,'” she said. “I think they shot teargas into the trailer to try to get him out, there was a lot of smoke coming out here. It did not make him come out.”

“This is a tragedy,” said Pastor Dan Cale of Friends Church in Hughesville, where McCartney attended services on a few occasions. “I last saw him a few weeks ago, and at that time, there was no indication that his life would end this way,” he said.

“Our church provided him with some food and other assistance. Like many others in our community, he struggled financially. He was no different than the many we help through our monthly food program. This tragedy is a reminder of just how much we need to help one another, and look out for each other,” he said.

“It’s a very sad situation that this happened. Our police have a very tough job. My heart goes out to them as well,” Cale added.

As she walked through the trailer court with a reporter on Monday morning, Mia said, “I saw Gary go down hill. He went from this happy-go-lucky guy to this sad, depressed (man), feeling alone. I believe he is with his son now. His suffering is over.”