Video reveals tense moments during Peachtree City standoff

PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. - FOX 5 has obtained a new video of the arrest of a barricaded gunman in Peachtree City. 

Police say they were originally told he had murdered his three young children who were inside the home with him.

What we know:

The newly released video from this past weekend in Peachtree City shows their police Special Response Team negotiators at work communicating with Godfey Forbes, 39, who they say had barricaded himself inside the family’s home with loaded weapons and children. For hours, he refused to talk with them, although he had sent messages to others that he had killed the children before the police arrived.

"There were text-based communication from Mr. Forbes to both our victim and family members that were indicating that he had possibly already taken the lives of family members," said Lt. Chris Hyatt, Peachtree City Police.

Police say when Forbes first decided to talk to them, it was only through text messages. Then they say he forced his children to talk to the SWAT team members from inside the home. A good development because the police then knew they were alive.

When the SWAT team breached the front door, they say they found he had heavily barricaded it with furniture and family belongings. Police say it seems he had put everything against the doors. And even on the staircase, they encountered a door off its hinges.

Police say Forbes had then barricaded himself in an upstairs bedroom with the children. They would later find the children in a bedroom closet, and he was sitting on a chair in the corner surrounded by loaded weapons.

Police say Forbes ultimately surrendered and the children, who were traumatized but safe. It sounds cliché to say that for hours the situation was touch and go with a heavily armed man, holding children in a barricaded home. Police say it was extremely tense.

"It was the best possible outcome given what we were dealing with."

What's next:

Police have charged Forbes with aggravated assault, family violence, obstruction of law enforcement officers, possession of a firearm in commission of a crime, false imprisonment and cruelty to children.