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Teen in custody after tense standoff
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · May 28, 2015
A tense standoff between the West Branch police chief — gun drawn — and an armed teenager asking the chief to “Do a head shot,” ended peacefully minutes after it started Friday at the West Branch Village.
The 16-year-old faces several charges, including first-degree robbery, aggravated harassment, aggravated assault and carrying a dangerous weapon. A magistrate judge set bond at $25,000 cash.
A bus driving through the neighborhood at the time of the standoff passed its last stop to leave the scene, delaying several children from getting home in an effort to keep them safe.
The incident took place after school Friday when the boy asked a girl for a ride home, Police Chief Mike Horihan said. The boy allegedly told the girl to pull into the West Branch Dog Park and then displayed what was later learned to be an Airsoft pellet gun which Horihan said was designed to look similar to a 92F Beretta, also known as a Pietro Beretta.
He demanded her cell phone, the chief said, and the girl reported she thought the gun was real, yet resisted.
Though the boy stole the phone, someone called 911 and Cedar County Sheriff’s Department dispatched West Branch Police to the scene. Horihan arrived first and found the girl and a woman who had stopped to help. The woman flagged the officer down and said the boy, who was wearing a hoodie, fled the scene and “just turned the corner” into the mobile home park.
Horihan drove to the West Branch Village, turned in and looked down Bradley Lane where he saw a boy with a hoodie walking down the street. He drove up and said he needed to talk to the boy, told him to stop and show him some identification. The boy refused and kept walking.
Horihan said he repeatedly directed the boy to stop and was repeatedly ignored.
The boy then passed a vehicle parked in front of 2 Bradley and walked behind it. Horihan said he got out of his car and approached the boy, the car separating the two. At one point, the boy took off some dog tags and threw them, saying “That’s who I am.”
Horihan said he began chasing the boy around the car, telling him he would eventually catch him. The police chief asked if the boy had a gun, which the boy initially denied.
The officer said he then saw the boy reach into his sweatshirt; at this time Horihan said he pulled out his own gun. Horihan said the teenager appeared to have a Beretta and he gripped it with just a few fingers, “not his whole hand.”
Horihan said he repeatedly told the boy to drop the gun and the boy refused and began to move toward the home at 2 Bradley. The boy then began to crouch, “like he was going to lay down the gun, but he didn’t,” the chief said.
At that point, Horihan said he got a slightly better look at the gun and it “seemed to have a different finish” — or “bluing” — than other Berettas. It also appeared to have a magazine well different than other automatics, the chief said.
Horihan asked “Is that a real gun?” The boy said “Yes.”
Again, Horihan said he demanded the boy put the gun down.
Resident Alyssa Detert, who lives a couple of doors down from where the incident took place, said she and her husband were at home when she heard Horihan shouting. The two stepped outside and could see both Horihan and the boy about 40 feet away.
She said the boy seemed “defiant,” but calm.
“He definitely seemed a little out of it,” she said. “He wasn’t angry. ... He was talking calmly, he wasn’t screaming.”
Detert said the boy said things like “No sir, this is my gun,” and “I don’t need to put it down, sir. You don’t know what you’re talking about, sir.”
About this time the boy bent down, but Horihan said the boy instead appeared to “change his grip,” which Horihan took to be threatening.
At this point, the boy told Horihan to “Do a head shot.”
The boy put the gun on the ground, but did not move away from it, the police chief said. Horihan said he suspected the gun was not real, “but I was still not willing to stake my life on it.”
Horihan said he pulled out his Taser, fired yet missed. However, the shot managed to prompt the boy to move away from the gun, which gave Horihan the opportunity to grab the boy and push him to the ground.
“He was hard to cuff,” the chief said, and backup had yet to arrive. A couple of residents offered to help, which Horihan said he appreciated the offer, but the boy still had the potential to break away.
Iowa State Patrol’s Bob Smith arrived next on the scene and the boy was placed in the front passenger seat of Smith’s patrol car. A second ISP officer and a Cedar County Sheriff also responded to the scene.
Horihan said he has pulled his gun previously in his law enforcement career, but only to “maintain safety.”
“This is one of the first times I can remember I drew my weapon when I was subject to aggression,” he said. “It was my most tense situation in law enforcement.”
He said other officers may have “acted differently” once a weapon is drawn.
West Branch Community Schools bus driver Tammy Oaks was driving on Bradley Lane at the time of the incident and saw the commotion at the end of the street. In a thread on Facebook page Voices of West Branch, Oaks said she took the children remaining on the bus back to school until it was determined safe to return.
“All parents were contacted also,” she wrote. “Very thankful for our police chief and first responders.”
School Transportation Director Joe Lande said Oaks told him she was about a third of the way down Bradley when saw what was happening; he also said Oaks did not report seeing a weapon.
“She said it didn’t feel safe, and I commend her for that,” Lande said.
Detert said she could see Oaks was aware of the situation and instead of dropping her passengers off, drove past the scene.
“She had to drive past the scene,” Detert said.
Asked if driving by the scene might have put the children in danger, Detert said “only if the kids had gotten off.”
“She was OK driving by,” Detert said. “It was far enough away that it wouldn’t have been any problem.”
Lande said parents were told there was an “incident” at the end of the street. Lande said Oaks first drove to one more stop north of town, then returned to Central Office with eight children who get off at the last stop in West Branch Village.
In the same Facebook thread, Detert praised Horihan’s efforts.
“Guy with gun, Chief Mike did a great job taking him down,” she wrote. “Heard Mike yelling to put down the gun.”
She elaborated when talking to the West Branch Times, saying “he handled everything by the book.”
“I couldn’t be prouder to have him as our chief,” she said.
Carrie McGovern Hourigan, identifying herself on the Facebook thread as a “WB Village rep,” said she felt “obligated to clarify it was NOT a resident of our community. He came running into our community.”
According to Airsoftgi.com, Airsoft pellet guns are air-powered guns designed to replicate real fire arms. And PelletGunZone.com states that pellets are larger and heavier than BBs, traveling faster and more accurately, making them “great for hunting.”
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