Never underestimate the power of a Christmas carol, especially when the song is “White Christmas”. Armed with a rifle, a suspect held off a swat team for ten hours in East Vincent, Pennsylvania but agreed to give up after an officer sang the song to him.

The suspect, Nathaniel Lewis, 34, allegedly fired at police when confronted at his home. A relative had reported him acting erratically on Christmas evening. Around 9 p.m. on Christmas Day, police responded to a call from a concerned family member who asked them to check on Lewis who was in the process of separating from his wife and was behaving erratically.

The gunshots hit a police vehicle, a house and another vehicle, and the Swat (Special Weapons and Tactics) team returned fire. When police learned that Lewis, a National Guard member, was armed, they called in a local SWAT team, the release states. A SWAT negotiator with a do-whatever-it-takes attitude ended the standoff when he serenaded Lewis.

Chester County district attorney Thomas Hogan wrote on Facebook: “Over a long and cold night, they kept negotiating with the man, who eventually started shooting at the police and around the neighborhood.”

During the wait, Mr Hogan took home-made biscuits to the Swat team, and the stand-off dragged on until, eventually, a negotiator got Lewis to surren-der by singing the Bing Crosby festive classic White Christmas.

Lewis was taken into custody and reportedly charged with multiple counts of attempted homicide, aggravated assault and other offences.

“You can’t make this stuff up,”  Hogan wrote on his Facebook page.“Over a long and cold night, they kept negotiating with the man, who eventually started shooting at the police and around the neighborhood.

Armed with a rifle, Lewis shot at officers sitting inside and standing near an armored SWAT vehicle, hitting it, according to the release.

“A SWAT negotiator finally talked him into surrendering at 6:00 a.m. this morning by singing a Christmas carol for him,” Hogan wrote.

Lewis, it turns out, had demanded that the SWAT team sing “White Christmas” to him, the release says. When a negotiator finished the song, Lewis surrendered, according to authorities.

“This was a very different demand,” East Vincent Township Police Chief Matt Williams, who is also the head of the SWAT team said.

The team member who sang the iconic Christmas song that ended the standoff might not be the next Bing Crosby, but “he was good enough to accomplish the goal,” says Williams.

Lewis was taken into custody about 7 a.m. Wednesday. He faces multiple counts of attempted homicide, aggravated assault and related charges, according to the DA’s office. He remains held at the Chester County Prison, a prison official confirmed. He is being held without bail, according to multiple outlets, including KYW-TV, CBS’ Philadelphia station.

It is unclear whether he has retained an attorney who can speak on his behalf.

Williams, who says the investigation is ongoing, praised his team for saving the day. “I can’t be prouder of the way they responded,” he tells PEOPLE. “Incidents like these is why we train so much and are constantly training. Our goal is to save lives.”

Hogan agrees. “This is as close to a Christmas miracle as you’re going to get,” Hogan told KYW-TV. “Everybody got to go home to their families that day. All the SWAT guys got to go home to their families. The defendant got taken into custody but at least he wasn’t killed.”