ARMED STANDOFF IN WASHINGTON STATE ENDS AFTER 4 HOURS WITH A SPECIAL DAIRY QUEEN DELIVERY
I happened to re-watch The Negotiator the other day, despite all the negative associations of the Gimp as a co-star. So the dynamics of how authorities engage with armed and hostile subjects is pretty fresh in my mind, especially with the awareness that the stakes are high and the situation is both fluid with an edge of almost explosive. But armed subjects are random. And that unpredictability for better or worse is all the more so with tension stress. But drugs and alcohol can make things even harder to read for authorities. So it’s kind of remarkable that a man in Washington ended his standoff with police because they sent him a delivery from Dairy Queen.
SUSPECT WAS IN A CAR WITH LIGHTER FLUID, FIREWORKS AND A LOADED SHOTGUN
I must say, I never thought of Dairy Queen as a way to establish rapport with a subject, never mind be the thing that could end an armed standoff. And with this particular case, it’s even more surprising. Why? Because the man named Reagan (yes, but a different Reagan and a different Washington) had set fire to his own apartment before he fled from authorities in a car filled with lighter fluid, fire logs, fireworks and crustal meth. And let’s not forget that Elijah Reagan was smoking meth and had a shotgun with him. To me, all of that sounds like a veritable cocktail for violence, mayhem and disaster.
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ARMED STANDOFF ENDED WITH A DAIRY QUEEN BURGER AND BLIZZARD DELIVERED BY ROBOT
But local authorities were able to disable his car with spikes and boxed the vehicle in with armored cars. That’s when the armed standoff and negotiations began. Reagan eventually agreed to surrender if exchange for a delivery from Dairy Queen, a hamburger and Blizzard (an unknown flavor). So the police bought the necessary delectables and delivered them to Reagan using a tactical robot. And four hours after the standoff began, it was over with a special delivery. Reagan was booked on charges of felony arson and eluding police, and is held on a $250,000 bond until his arraignment.
