A hostage situation at a Brooklyn check cashing store by a lone gunman ended peacefully Saturday night after a few tense hours after the gunman surrendered.
Police said the gunman entered the money transfer store- check cashing and money exchange store about 7:45 p.m., initially posing as a customer, then announced a robbery, displaying a handgun.
Two workers and a customer were inside at the time, but an employee managed to escape and called 911, sending police from the 83 Precinct and other units racing to the two-story attached store at 300-302 Irving Ave., along a local shopping strip.
Realizing he was surrounded, police said the robber barricaded the front door with several chairs.
At that point, NYPD hostage negotiators began a dialogue with him that lasted more than two hours.
At two points, the robber pointed his gun at an Emergency Services cop, who held his fire, and at one of the hostages inside. Police said the bungling bandit, not immediately identified, eventually agreed to surrender, climbing out of a second-floor rear window and down a ladder to surrender to waiting cops with their guns drawn.
Police said his weapon turned out to be a fake gun.
The two hostages were taken to an area hospital for examination, just to be on the safe side, cops said..