Fugitive search sparks standoff
Police capture Billy Joe Evans near Brogan Friday
By Katie Pizza
Argus Observer
Saturday, March 15, 2008 10:24 PM PDT
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| Police surrounded the Ontario Inn and closed off several Ontario streets (above) Friday morning in a search for Billy Joe Evans. Evans, wanted on several outstanding warrants, was not at the motel but was arrested later in the day near Brogan. |
Ontario - A man who ignited a massive police response in Ontario was captured near Brogan late Friday by the Malheur County Sheriff’s Office.
Billy Joe Evans, 56, was arrested at 5:30 p.m., outside the small Malheur County town, capping a day where a host of law enforcement agencies converged and surrounded the Ontario Inn where Evans was reported to be staying.
“He was captured out of Brogan, a small town right out of Vale,” Ontario Police Department Capt. Mark Alexander said. “Somebody saw him, recognized him and called the sheriff.”
Malheur County Undersheriff Brian Wolfe said his office received a call at 5:03 p.m. that Evans was in Brogan. Wolfe said Evans was leaving the Brogan store when he was spotted and reported. He was walking down the highway when he was taken into custody.
Evans had two warrants for his arrest, one for a parole violation in Wyoming and a fraud warrant in Ohio.
The day-long law enforcement search for Evans began Friday morning when OPD received a call from the Ontario Inn, situated at 1144 S.W. Fourth Avenue, regarding a suspicious person.
OPD officer Everett Denney arrived at the motel to investigate and spotted Evans entering one of the three rooms he had rented. Evans apparently rented the set of rooms March 5 and told the motel manager the rooms were for co-workers from a mining company.
The mining company members, though, never showed, and Evans never paid for the rooms, prompting the motel manager to call police.
The actions by the motel manager, Alexander said, were key.
“If it wasn’t for her, we wouldn’t have found him,” he said.
Once police determined Evans’ background — including the outstanding warrants and his history of resisting arrest — it touched off a massive response.
OPD, the Oregon State Police and the Malheur County Sheriff’s Office deployed officers to the area and closed down a three-block section of Fourth Avenue surrounding the scene.
The Malheur County Sheriff’s Office dispatched a large armored truck to help capture Evans.
“It’s the first time we’ve used it,” Malheur County Sheriff Andy Bentz said. “We’ve had it for about a year and a half.”
The truck is part of the Sheriff’s Emergency Response Team (SERT) and was on the scene with eight Malheur County deputies, Bentz and Undersheriff Brian Wolfe.
The SERT arrived on the scene at 9 a.m., with Bentz arriving at around 9:30 a.m.
“We were doing some perimeter containment and worked with the entry team,” Bentz said.
Officers evacuated two men from surrounding rooms and a local barbershop owner before inquiring about more people in the motel.
Room 1, which was next to the three rooms Evans rented, was reported to be rented to Britteny Fiorentino, 20, Ontario. Officers attempted to contact her through her motel phone several times, but to no avail. Officers then assumed that the room was empty.
Residents in the two homes closest to the scene were also asked to evacuate.
Ontario High School, which was four blocks away from the scene, and Ontario Middle School, which was two blocks away, were also put into lockdown.
“They were supposed to have a half-day of school today, but they implemented a lockdown for a short period of time,” Alexander said. Ontario High School and Ontario Middle School were in lockdown for about an hour.
“They called us at 11:20 a.m.,” OMS Principal LaVelle Cornwell said. “We went into yellow code, where you lock the doors and continue to teach. We stayed in this code until we got an all-clear at 12:30, and the students were allowed to go home. They were supposed to be released at 11:30.”
School buses were outside waiting to transport children home.
“We had a lot of parents waiting to pick their children up,” Cornwell said.
Officers attempted to contact Evans by making phone calls to the three rooms he had rented, but to no avail.
Officers then used a public address system to attempt to coax Evans out of the room.
Finally, police warned over the PA that tear gas would be used to clear the room.
Then at least five rounds of tear gas were fired to bring Evans out.
The sounds echoed down alleyways and up streets.
Fiorentino, asleep in Room 1, awoke to an unsettling sound.
“I heard a boom shhhhh noise from next door,” Fiorentino said. “So I got up to see what was going on from the cat window.”
An OPD spotter near the scene saw Fiorentino peer out from the tiny glass window surrounded by wood and reported the sighting. Fiorentino said that she was not aware of the calls to her motel room.
“I was completely out of it, asleep,” she said. “They drug me out and put me in the back of a car.”
Police then entered the rooms searching for Evans, but he was gone.
“We found a lot of personal property and clothing,” Alexander said.
Alexander said that Evans most likely left on foot shortly after OPD officer Denney spotted him.
He is currently lodged in Malheur County Jail.
The incident was a surprise to at least one Ontario resident.
“When I got up to leave at 9 a.m., police told me they had a dangerous felon in there camped out,” Larry Scoggins, who lives on Southwest Fifth Avenue, a few homes down from the scene, said.
