A retired Baltimore police officer fighting eviction held his former colleagues at bay for four hours yesterday and fired tear gas at them during a standoff at his West Baltimore rowhouse, officials said.

Larry Grandpre, 54, who had been a city officer for 22 years before retiring in March 1994, surrendered peacefully. His neighbors were ordered to stay inside their homes during the incident.

Police said Grandpre was taken to the University of Maryland Medical Center for a psychiatric evaluation. He had retired while awaiting discipline in connection with a domestic-abuse incident, said Sgt. Scott Rowe, a police spokesman.

Tactical officers who searched the house in the 1100 block of N. Longwood St. said they found a Mossberg pump shotgun, a Tech-22 machine pistol, a .38-caliber Colt revolver and a .45-caliber Smith and Wesson handgun.

The incident began about 9: 40 a.m. when a sheriff's deputy tried to serve an eviction notice at Grandpre's rowhouse in the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood.

Rowe said Grandpre shouted at the deputy to get away from the house. "The deputy then heard what he believed to be shotgun racking," Rowe said.

Members of the Police Department's Quick Response Team surrounded the house. Rowe said it was then that a tear-gas canister was fired at officers.

Police said they were trying to determine whether the man had permits for the weapons and how he obtained the tear gas.

Rowe said negotiators talked to Grandpre by phone and persuaded him to give up. About 1: 20 p.m., tactical officers went into the house and removed the former officer. Rowe said he did not know why Grandpre had refused to leave earlier.

No one else was home at the time.

Few details about Grandpre could be learned late yesterday afternoon. He was last assigned to the Eastern District station. Rowe had no details on Grandpre's domestic troubles, which occurred in 1993.

Pub Date: 11/21/98