The hostage crisis on Spruce Street turned out to be something less than it might have been, with the suspects captured by Chelsea police and taken into custody with no one hurt.
However, it is the what might have been, which caused such a well intentioned fuss to be made over it.
From start to finish, the Chelsea Police responded flawlessly to the imperatives and the possibilities of this incident.
That is to say, every measure of caution and back-up was called upon to deal with every eventuality.
The Boston Swat Team and its armored vehicles were called in because it was at first believed that hostages were being held by gunmen who had committed a robbery inside the Spencer Avenue home.
Bottom line, many of us watched on television as Chief Brian Kyes took one of the suspects into custody himself, placing the handcuffs on him.
We can’t recall the last time a chief of police actually made an arrest and so we tip our caps to Chief Kyes, and to all the men and women of the Chelsea Police force who participated in the action that took place on Spruce Street Sunday morning.
Cool heads prevailed.
Proper attention was paid to detail.
No one was hurt, and the situation was successfully and peacefully resolved.
We refer to this as nice work well done.