WASHINGTON - Sources say D.C. police officers are angry at the mayor over allegations he interfered in a standoff with an armed man.

On May 30, D.C. police officers were reportedly in a standoff with a gunman they'd just shot four times who was hold up in an apartment by himself in Southeast.

The D.C. Police Union says officers on the scene were told by a superior that Mayor Fenty was trying to call the shots and wanted the man tear gassed.

"There were indications by department officials that the mayor was making decisions that are supposed to be preserved for our professionals," said Kristopher Baumann, the Fraternal Order of Police union chairman. "This is not a movie -- this is not a game -- this is people's lives hanging in the balance."

D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier (web | news | bio) agrees the mayor should not be involved in such things and says in this case, he wasn't. "This is the most phenomenally unbelievable fabricated story I've ever heard," she said.

But Baumann says the fact he's launched an investigation into the matter has gotten him dragged before internal affairs. He's since filed a lawsuit against Fenty and Lanier for allegedly trying to intimidate him into silence on the matter.

He notes the use of tear gas would have made the situation worse. "...Which would have caused the individual who was barricaded inside by himself to come out of the residence and they probably would have had to kill him," said Baumann.

Sources say the man gave himself up to hostage negotiators whose unit Lanier recently broke up. That's why she says she's suspicious about the union's motives.

"The hostage negotiation unit has just been decentralized, so I don't know if that's what's behind the allegation," she said.

The union criticized Lanier for disbursing the unit who says she needed them for patrol and other duties. Fenty's spokeswoman says allegations that he was trying to run the SWAT team are false.

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