SEE: Cops Watch Barricaded Gunman By Flying Drone To Window

COBBLE HILL, BROOKLYN — A stand-off between police and a man who they thought had barricaded himself into an apartment with a gun on Tuesday could have ended differently had it not been for some new NYPD technology.

Police negotiating with a 47-year-old man who had locked himself into an apartment several stories up at 125 Court Street were able to see him as they talked by flying a drone up to the window, police said. The incident was the first time NYPD had deployed a drone to use it in this way, the department said on Twitter.

The drone helped officers, who had been negotiating with the man for hours, make sure that he put what looked like a gun down onto the windowsill before they went to take him into custody, an NYPD spokesperson said. Police later determined that what the man had was an imitation pistol.

Police had first been called to to the apartment building just before 9 a.m. and said the man refused to open the door, but was thought to be alone in the apartment with a gun and a baseball bat.

Emergency service, hostage negotiation and technical assistance officers were all called to help while police shut down surrounding streets to try and resolve the stand-off peacefully. Streets started to reopen around 2:30 p.m.

The man was taken to Brooklyn Methodist Hospital and has not been charged with anything yet, the spokesperson said.

The incident had caused chaos earlier in the day when bystanders began posting online that there was an active shooter in the building — or even in the nearby Trader Joe's. But NYPD clarified on Twitter throughout the afternoon that there had been no shots fired and that there is not an active shooter.