Bridgeport police Detective Chris Borona, a crisis negotiator for five years, talked the man into giving up peacefully after more than three hours of telephone negotiation, said Lt. James Viadero, police spokesman.

Carlos Garcia, 25, address unavailable, faces several counts of attempted murder and other charges. three counts of attempted murder, carrying a pistol without a permit, and reckless endangerment. He was held on a $1 million bond.

The suspect had just been released from prison, Viadero said.

Garcia's girlfriend Pamela Monge, 19, of Seaview Avenue, was charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

Viadero said Monge and Garcia were in a vehicle and shot at a person on Milne Street in the Hollow section of the city before the standoff. The person who was shot at reported the incident to a passing police detective.

Police tracked the man believed to have fired the shots to Seaview Avenue, where he shot at officers when they arrived. Viadero estimated at least 10 shots were fired.

"Our officers did an outstanding job confronting the man. We were able to escort citizens safely from the building," Viadero said.

Police convinced the man to throw one gun from a window during the standoff, but found "numerous" other firearms in the house after he was taken into custody. Viadero would not say what types or how many.

The department's new Mobile Command Center was brought to the scene. The State Police's Emergency Services Unit also responded in a specially equipped vehicle, but did not have to enter the house, Viadero said.

John Percell, who lives on Seaview Avenue at Central Avenue, two doors down from where the standoff occurred, said he heard "at least 13 shots, the last two of them muffled" before police arrived in numer-ous cars and barricaded the scene.

"I was going to give a friend a ride, but I've been unable to leave my house," Percell said in a telephone interview, watching the action from his back door. "Police evacuated the house across the street from the one where the shots were fired."

He said he had heard the police yell out to a man called "Carlos," asking him to throw his gun out the window and use a cell phone left on a second-floor landing to talk with them.

Percell, saying he did not know anyone named Carlos on his street, also observed two officers with guns behind the house and others with police dogs.

Yesenia Montanez, a next-door neighbor, said she was evacuated from her home by an officer at 6 p.m. after the shots were fired.

"When we heard the gunshots, we just laid on the floor," Montanez said.

She said the house where the standoff occurred is owned by the grandmother of the girlfriend of the man involved in incident.

She said she did not know the man well, but did not expect him to tangle with police because he was friendly and would wave when he saw her.

She added she had talked to the man and his girlfriend a couple of hours before the shooting.

The neighborhood, she added, is quiet and has a lot of children living in it.

Meanwhile, her family, including three young children, had not eaten since 6 p.m., she said.

As the standoff neared its end, a Salvation Army canteen truck supplied the displaced families with Gatorade, Oreo cookies, water, doughnuts and coffee.