Fort Bragg Staff Sgt faces attempted murder charges in police stand-off www.privateofficer.com
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — Jan 16 2012
A Fort Bragg soldier is facing 30 charges after exchanging gunfire with police and barricading himself in his apartment for hours Friday night and Saturday morning.
Staff Sgt. Joshua P. Eisenhauer is charged with 15 counts of attempted first-degree murder, six counts of felony assault on a law enforcement official and nine counts of felony assault on a government official.
Eisenhauer was listed in critical condition after the gunfire exchange.
Two Fayetteville Police officers were also injured during the standoff with the soldier at an apartment complex, according to a police spokesman.
Ft. Bragg Saturday morning identified the soldier as Staff Sgt. Joshua P. Eisenhauer. He was assigned to Fort Bragg’s Warrior Transition Battalion. That’s a unit for wounded soldiers or soldiers transitioning out of the military, according to a Ft. Bragg spokesman.
Fayettevile police spokesman Gavin MacRoberts said Eisenhauer was in critical but stable condition at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill.
In a 4 a.m. news conference spokesman MacRoberts said the injuries to the officers were “minor.” One officer has a cut to the head and the other has shrapnel in an arm.
The injuries are the result of a four-hour standoff that started with firefighters responding to a fire.
Firefighters arrived to the Austin Creek Apartment complex on 71st School Road around 10 p.m.
While there was not a major fire at the complex, firefighters were not able to get into any of the apartments they were trying to respond to, so they called police for help.
Police said a man started shooting at them around 10:30 p.m. and that officers fired back. The man then went back into his apartment on the third floor.
Police cleared out people from nearby apartments and took them to the fire station across the street.
“It is definitely nerve-racking when you know loved ones are in a situation and no ones giving you information, you just know someone has been shooting,” said Trevor Jones.
As a result, members of the Emergency Response Team used explosives to take out the front door of the suspect’s apartment. They sent in a robot.
They found Eisenhauer on the kitchen floor and he was taken into custody around 2:10 a.m.
One of the officers was also taken to the hospital. The other was treated on the scene.
Because this was an officer-involved shooting, the State Bureau of Investigation will be investigating. The officers involved will be placed on administrative duty during the SBI investigation.
The names of the officers will be released after “proper notifications” have been made, according to MacRoberts.
Police shut down 71st School Road around the apartment complex for several hours.
“They wouldn’t tell me anything. They wouldn’t tell me anything. They wouldn’t tell me if my apartment’s OK or what’s going on,” said a woman named Karen who lives in the complex, but declined to give her last name.
Jonathan Saucier also lives in the complex. He left work early when he found out about the situation. His wife was home alone.
“I’m actually very worried. I can’t get to her, but what can I do?,” he said.
While he couldn’t get to his wife because of the police barricades, his wife was giving him updates by phone.
“She first told me she’d been hearing gunshots. Everyone was hanging out of the balcony looking what’s was going on,” he said.
Saucier said his wife heard the explosion when police blew open the suspect’s door.
“She said it was the loudest noise she’s heard since and it set off car alarms.”
The road re-opened to traffic just before 3 a.m.
“I am truly proud of the valiant conduct displayed by our safety and security personnel in response to this challenging situation,” said City Manager Dale Iman in a written statement Saturday. “I am grateful to the fire fighters who attempted to make the citizens who were displaced to our fire station as comfortable as possible.
The investigation into the incident is ongoing.
Jones lives directly below the suspect and said he was worried about his girlfriend. He also said Eisenhauer seemed like a quiet person.
Crisis Team negotiators tried unsuccessfully to contact Eisenhauer for several hours.
Source:NBC17
