The scene of the standoff Tuesday.
Credit: Planet Princeton
Correction: A previously version of this story stated the subject resided in Newtown Township. However, a mistake was made when verifying the address, he was actually a resident of Upper Makefield’s Newtown section.
A former Upper Makefield man was identified as the armed subject killed by police following an hours-long Tuesday standoff in Princeton.
The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office released a statement identifying Scott Mielentz, 56, as the man who was fatally shot by police after hours of negotiations. Mielentz was held up in the Panera Bread location on Nassau Street in Princeton starting at around 10 a.m.
Mielentz, per authorities, was a former Newtown resident and recently resided in Lawrenceville, New Jersey.
Court records indicated he may have had some recent financial troubles. Last fall, the 56-year-old man had a landlord-tenant case before Newtown District Judge Mick Petrucci and was ordered to pay $5,600.
A phone call to a Florida number connected to Mielentz went to an acquaintance who said the family was mourning and did not wish to comment.
From the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office:
According to the preliminary investigation, the incident began shortly after 10 a.m. when the armed man (later identified as Mielentz) entered Panera Bread on Nassau Street, across from the Princeton University campus. Customers and employees were able to flee the building, and police secured the perimeter of the restaurant. The standoff between police and the armed man in the restaurant continued for several hours, during which negotiators attempted unsuccessfully to get the suspect to surrender peacefully. The standoff ended shortly before 3 p.m. when the suspect was fatally shot by police. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The standoff involved local and state police along with federal agents.
Mielentz appeared to have no recent criminal record in Pennsylvania.
