HOLLIDAYSBURG — A Tyrone Borough police officer testified Tuesday that he wasn’t going to knock on the door of a Tyrone man refusing to come out of his residence last year during what turned into an 18-hour standoff.

Officer Austin Miller said he spoke several times with John Albert Wineland’s family members who described Wineland on July 21 as intoxicated and provided a video of an angry Wineland, with two guns hanging from shoulder straps and one in his hand.

“I wasn’t walking into your house with you in that state,” Miller told Wineland, who is defending himself at trial.

“Did you knock on my door?” Wineland asked the officer.

“Absolutely not,” Miller answered. “I didn’t want to die.”

Wineland, who is charged with aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, terroristic threats, flight to avoid apprehension, simple assault and resisting arrest, is trying to convince the jury that Miller and other responding police officers escalated what had been “a simple argument to start with.”

Assistant District Attorney Derek Elensky asked Miller and other testifying officers about their goal in surrounding Wineland’s residence and evacuating nearby areas and residences.

“The goal was to get Mr. Wineland to come out,” Tyrone Officer Gil Barton testified Tuesday.

Barton said he was about 50 to 60 yards from Wineland’s residence when Wineland walked onto the porch, prompting a fellow officer to yell: “Show me your hands.” Barton said Wineland responded with an obscene gesture and went back inside.

In cross-examination, Wineland asked Barton about his specific location, with Barton confirming that he was about 50 yards from 2054 Riddle Ave. residence and heard: “Show me your hands.”

Elensky also asked Barton if he was in a place to see the defendant’s action, and Barton said yes.

Wineland also challenged the claim that as a state police unit fired gas-filled hotboxes into his residence, he picked them up and threw them back toward the officers.

“The hotboxes? They’re hot, right?” Wineland asked Barton.

“They have a handle,” Barton said.

Wineland also offered a video showing a hotbox that appeared to have remained outside his residence, where it caught fire and fell to the ground.

Miller later testified that he saw a hotbox come from inside the house and land five to six feet away from a state trooper with the Special Emergency Response Team.

Elensky is expected to wrap up his case today with remaining witnesses.

Wineland told Judge Jackie Bernard on Tuesday that he intends to testify in his own defense today and present additional witnesses.

Wineland’s family members, called by the prosecution, told the jury on Monday that they weren’t fearful of Wineland when they left their residence after ongoing arguments with Wineland and went to the police station.

Wineland’s wife, Jodi, said she and her husband have regularly argued throughout their 27 years of marriage. She also told the jury that she anticipated police would deescalate a situation that they instead escalated.

Wineland’s daughters also told the jury they weren’t afraid of their father, including Madison Wineland, who said it was she — and not her father — who had possession of a knife that “nipped” her cheek. Tuesday’s story about that testimony included an incorrect reference to Morgan Wineland as having “nipped” her cheek.

In his opening statement, Elensky asked the jury to focus on what the family members told police — as captured on Miller’s body camera — when they arrived at the police station.

This week’s trial is Wineland’s second trial in connection with the standoff. In November, a jury acquitted Wineland of illegal possession of a firearm. Testimony indicated that the guns he had at his house included a BB gun, an air rifle and a gun that shoots corks.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.