Hartford — An increasingly chaotic scene at 96 Tumblebrook Drive in South Windsor the evening of July 7, 2009, featured Nancy Tyler's dash to freedom followed by SWAT team members' use of "nonlethal projectiles" and pepper spray in a bid to force Tyler's alleged captor, Richard Shenkman, out of the house, police testified Friday during Shenkman's kidnapping and arson trial.

Despite the tactics, Shenkman remained in the house until a fire he allegedly set drove him outside, a South Windsor patrolman told a Hartford Superior Court jury.

Officer Matthew Mainieri, dispatched to the scene along with other members of the Capitol Region Emergency Services Team, or CREST, said Shenkman crawled out the back door of the house, put a gun to his head and screamed at police. Struck by sponge-tipped projectiles fired by other SWAT team members, Shenkman dropped his gun, and Mainieri moved in to "taser" him with a device that emits an electrical charge, Mainieri testified.

Finally subdued, Shenkman, a former advertising and public relations executive, was taken into custody near midnight, ending a nearly 13-hour standoff during which he allegedly held Tyler, his ex-wife, hostage after abducting her at gunpoint earlier in the day in Hartford. Tyler testified Wednesday that Shenkman threatened to kill her, handcuffed her and bolted her to a basement wall in the South Windsor home they once shared.

Shenkman's defense attorney, Hugh Keefe, has indicated he will argue that his 62-year-old client was legally insane when the events of July 7, 2009, unfolded. The 10 counts against Shenkman are first-degree kidnapping; violating a protective order; carrying a pistol without a permit; two counts of second-degree threatening; first-degree threatening; third-degree assault; interfering with an officer; attempted assault of an officer and first-degree arson.

Capt. Stephen Clark of the Vernon police, the CREST tactical commander at the South Windsor scene, testified that arriving team members were informed that Shenkman had fired shots and had booby-trapped the house and grounds. He said a decision was made to send a robot up to the porch to drop off a cell phone. The robot failed to work, he said, but it did distract Shenkman long enough for Tyler to free herself and run out of the house.

"Was the robot a ruse to shoot Shenkman?" Keefe asked Clark on cross-examination.

Clark said it was not, but he acknowledged that at that point SWAT team snipers were authorized to fire on Shenkman if they got a clear shot at him.

"Your team's goal was to capture Richard one way or another, right?" Keefe said.

"Yes," Clark replied.

Once Tyler had run out of the house to safety, the order authorizing snipers to fire on Shenkman with deadly force was lifted, Clark and another officer who followed him to the witness stand testified.

In fact, the order rescinding the authorization came "within five seconds" of Tyler's escape, said South Windsor Sgt. Peter Alix, a SWAT team member who saw Tyler emerge from the house, called to her and helped lift her over a fence at the rear of the property.

"She looked terrified ... shallow breathing, somewhat pale," Alix said. A handcuff dangled from her right wrist, he said.

According to testimony Friday, Tyler emerged from the house around 8:30 p.m. About an hour or so later, SWAT team members deployed canisters of nonflammable pepper spray into the house, Clark said. Shortly after that, officers saw the first sign that the house was burning. Other weapons and tactics involving nonlethal force were introduced around 11:30, including the launching of large rubber balls, whose effect Clark likened to "being hit by a 100-mile-an-hour fastball."

Paul Camarata, a Newington detective and CREST member, told the jury he arrived on the scene after Tyler's escape, heard Shenkman yell "just kill me" several times and witnessed Shenkman fire two shots out the back door of the house in the direction of "numerous" police officers. Camarata said he fired at Shenkman, hitting him in the face with a "less-lethal" round that drove Shenkman back into the house.

About a half-hour later, Camarata said, Shenkman came out with his gun to his head. Camarata and others fired on him again, and then Mainieri moved in with the Taser, Camarata said.

Glenn Buonanducci, another South Windsor officer and CREST member, testified that Shenkman, while being taken into custody, rolled over, facedown into a stream of water in the driveway in an apparent attempt to commit suicide.

Judge Julia D. Dewey, presiding at the trial, did not inquire in open court about the status of an alternate juror, whose absence Thursday prevented the trial from proceeding.

"I don't care what happened yesterday as long as he's here today," Dewey told prosecutor Vicki Melchiorre before the six-member jury - and the alternate - entered the courtroom.

The trial is scheduled to resume Tuesday.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com