A City of Oshawa employee spoke out for the first time Wednesday evening since being abducted following a council meeting Monday night.

In an exclusive interview with CTV News, Oshawa city solicitor David Potts said he was “grateful” for the work of Durham and York police for “creating the circumstances in which [he] was ultimately able to escape.”

“I congratulate them on the professionalism that they showed in allowing the accused ultimately to surrender to police,” Potts added.

Earlier on Wednesday, the man accused of abducting Potts at gunpoint late Monday night and barricading himself in a local auto repair shop was charged with kidnapping and a number of related offences.

Robert Lutczyk, a former Oshawa city councillor, appeared in court via video link Wednesday morning and was charged with kidnapping using a restricted firearm, forcible confinement, uttering threats, flight from police, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle and use of a firearm in a commission of an offence.

Lutczyk, 45, was remanded into custody and will return to court on Thursday for a bail hearing.

The confrontation occurred outside a Whitby auto repair shop, leading to a 27-hour standoff that ended peacefully early Wednesday morning.

Speaking with reporters Wednesday morning Durham Regional Police Supt. Brian Osborne said officers were able to intervene and allow the victim to escape unharmed, and that negotiators were able to persuade the gun-wielding suspect, who fled into the building when police arrived, to surrender without incident at 5 a.m.

“We’re just happy for the conclusion that we have,” Osborne said at a news conference at DRPS headquarters in Whitby.

Osborne said the suspect was upset with the victim over "business matters" involving the City of Oshawa, leading to the armed abduction.

The investigation into the abduction of Potts led police to the auto shop, where the standoff began Tuesday at about 1:45 a.m.

Osborne said someone at the victim’s Clarington home alerted police when he was abducted Monday at about 11 p.m.

Potts was abducted as he returned home from a council meeting, sources told CTV Toronto.

About three hours later, police located the suspect’s vehicle in a parking lot near Consumers Drive and Thickson Road, and pursued it a short distance to the auto shop.

Bound victim runs free

As police confronted the suspect at gunpoint, the bound victim ran free and the suspect, armed with a handgun, retreated into the building, Osborne said.

No gunshots were fired.

For more than 24 hours, a heavily-armed tactical squad surrounded the repair shop as crisis negotiators talked to the suspect, who had a cellphone with him, to encourage him to surrender without incident.

Officers evacuated a large area during the negotiations because they were concerned the building may contain an explosive device. After the arrest, police began a sweep of the building to make sure it is safe, but have not located any explosives, Osborne said.

The arrest occurred after the suspect agreed to exit the building.

Later, friend Richard Weisz told CP24 he spoke to the barricaded man via cellphone at 2 a.m.

“He was coherent, he was stable and he just felt like he put himself in a situation he didn’t want to be in,” Weisz told CP24’s Cam Woolley. “He’s a really good person, a good individual in the community.”

Weisz applauded police for bringing the situation to a peaceful resolution.

“They really came through in getting him out safely and that’s number one,” he said.

During the standoff, Coun. Bruce Wood and other friends relayed messages from the man's wife during telephone conversations.

“He is certainly passionate about his community and that’s what I’m hoping that he will realize soon enough, that there is a future here at some point in time, to some degree, for him and moving ahead,” Wood said at the scene Tuesday night.

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