Apr. 5—The Alabama Bureau of Pardons & Paroles on Thursday named the man arrested Wednesday evening after a 6 1/2 -hour standoff with Decatur police, and court records show he has an extensive criminal record.

Michael Lamont Pruitt, 46, was taken into custody at about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, according to the bureau.

Pruitt was booked into the Morgan County Jail at 11:35 p.m. Wednesday and was charged with a parole violation, according to jail records.

Decatur police spokesperson Irene Cardenas-Martinez said Pardons & Paroles attempted to serve a warrant at a house on Oak Lea Road a little after 2 p.m. Wednesday.

According to Pardons & Paroles, officers from their Decatur Field Office met with officers from the Decatur Police Department and went to Pruitt’s residence on Oak Lea Road after receiving information that a man under mandatory supervised release was “threatening a family with a gun.”

When they arrived, Pruitt barricaded himself inside his residence and fired a gun within the house, which triggered the standoff, according to Pardons & Paroles.

The standoff resulted in the nearby Chestnut Grove Elementary being put on lockdown, eventually transitioning into a controlled release of students.

Pruitt received a ticket for a traffic violation last month and his address was listed as 1504 Oak Lea Road S.W. in Decatur.

Pruitt had had numerous encounters with the judicial system, most in Morgan and Lawrence counties.

In 2022, Pruitt was indicted by a Morgan County grand jury for domestic violence-strangulation. According to the charging document, Pruitt was near Frances Nungester Elementary School on Tammy Street in September 2020 when he wrapped a phone cord around a woman’s neck and applied pressure until she lost consciousness. The trial in that case is scheduled for Aug. 19.

In 2020, he was charged with domestic violence in Lawrence County and his probation in a previous case was revoked.

In 2015, Pruitt, an inmate at the Morgan County Jail, escaped from a work release program at the Committee on Church Cooperation and was found less than five hours later in Tennessee. He was initially jailed for failure to pay court-mandated fees in a 2008 assault case. Pruitt was charged with second-degree escape and ultimately pleaded guilty to third-degree escape.

In May 2014, he was arrested in Lawrence County on a charge of unlawful imprisonment and domestic violence. According to the criminal complaint, he caused the victim “to lose consciousness several times over a 30-hour period by choking her with his hands and an electrical cord.” He also tied her up with duct tape, according to the complaint, and “threatened to hurt her if she tried to leave.” He pleaded guilty in April 2016 to second-degree domestic violence, according to court records, and was sentenced to two years in prison to be followed by four years of supervised probation.

In 2011, he was arrested in Madison County for making a terrorist threat after calling BASF and threatening “to shoot everyone he sees and that he would blow up the place,” according to a police affidavit, causing the evacuation of the facility. He pleaded guilty to making a harassing communication and was sentenced to one year of probation, with a requirement that he enroll in an anger management class.

In 1998 he was indicted in Morgan County for kidnapping, a charge that was dismissed by the prosecution for reasons not apparent in the court records.

— wes.tomlinson@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2442.