Authorities prepare to breach the home of a domestic assault suspect at the 650 block of East 7th St. Sunday morning.
WINONA, Minn. (KWNO)- Authorities were able to arrest a Winona man suspected of domestic assault following a roughly 12-hour standoff Sunday.
The Winona Police Department says officers were called to the 650 block of East 7th St. at 8:18 p.m. Saturday to respond to a domestic assault complaint. Police say when officers tried to arrest the 41-year-old suspect, he barricaded himself inside the residence and began setting small fires in the home.
Police Chief Tom Williams says the suspect was threatening to shoot officers in the face and told them the only way he would leave the house was in a body bag. Williams said they were able to get a hold of the suspect by phone, then text message until the suspect disconnected his phone.
“Given the fact he was threatening to shoot us and the fact that he was actually starting fires throughout the house, we were afraid the officers couldn’t get close enough to take a throw phone and throw it into the house. So we got the MRAP up as closely as we could, tried negotiating with him numerous times,” said Williams.
Williams said officers attempted to comunicate with the suspect through an acquaintance of the suspect and the Crisis Response Team. Williams said the threats and small fires continued.
“We tried to keep initiating contact with him but then he’d completely stopped so we’d go like an hour, an hour and 10 minutes with no contact,” said Williams.
Williams said police deployed a “loud distraction device” to see if the suspect would react. He said the man would “come to” and start talking with negotiators again.
Williams said it became obvious the suspect was committed to staying in the house as the negotiations continued. “It was starting to get light out, which became a disadvantage to us,” said Williams.
Williams said officers tried using flashbang distractions and pepper balls to draw the suspect out. Williams said those tactics did not draw the suspect out.
“The sun started coming up and we said we better try and gas the house with a stronger dose of gas so then that’s when we started launching CN tear gas into the house and then we were actually able to actually throw some other handheld canisters of gas in there as well,” said Williams.
Williams said the suspect was able to withstand the barrage of gas in the home. He said that’s when authorities decided to enter the home with a K-9 and members of the Winona County and Olmsted County Emergency Response Teams.
Williams said the officers entered through the house’s front door but found the man had barricaded himself in the home’s second level. Officers then used a latter to gain access to the second-floor windows of the house.
“He then retreated into an extremely small crawlspace where the officers ultimately had to break through a wall, a sheetrock wall, to gain access to him to get him out,” said Williams.
Williams said the officers involved with the apprehension sustained minor injuries. The suspect was taken to Winona Health to be examined.
Police say the man arrested was Robert J. Cerney. Before the standoff, he was suspected of False Imprisonment, Domestic Abuse by Strangulation, Terroristic Threats, and violation of a Domestic Abuse No Contact Order.
The Winona Fire Department responded to put out fires set by the suspect. Assisting was the Winona County Sheriff’s Office, Goodview Police Department, Crisis Response Team, Winona County Emergency Response Team, and the Rochester/Olmsted County Emergency Response Team.
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