Update 4:30 p.m.: This story has been updated again to reflect the standoff has ended "peacefully" and all those evacuated from their apartments can go home.
Update 1:15 p.m..: This Story has been updated with an update from the Natrona County Sheriff's office, which also specified that the barricaded subject is armed and suicidal but does not have a hostage.
A standoff with a suspect who was barricaded in a Casper apartment for about 16 hours ended "peacefully" Thursday afternoon, the Natrona County Sheriff's Office reports.
A special response team of law enforcement officers was at the apartment of an armed and barricaded suspect at the Quail Run Apartments on East 15th Street after responding to a call of a suicidal person there just before 11:30 p.m. Thursday. Everyone from the building was allowed to leave their apartments and the complex.
As the standoff continued, the sheriff's office dispatched a statement urging non-residents to avoid the area.
As of 10:15 a.m. Friday, the Natrona County Special Response Team was still on scene with a “barricaded subject,” says an update to the statement on the sheriff’s official Facebook page.
Tami Combs, an across-the-corner neighbor to the barricaded subject’s second-floor apartment, said she overheard a negotiator speaking to a subject early in the morning.
“At 6 (a.m.) I heard a banging on the door telling him to come out — ‘Make it easy on yourself, come out,’” Combs said. “The negotiator was sitting in front of my apartment talking to him like, ‘Don’t get mad.’”
Combs said it sounded like the subject hung up on the negotiator, she added.
She said she heard a shot fired at about 10:45 a.m.
Combs wasn’t sure of the shot’s nature or direction. Some shots fired in standoffs are gunshots, while others can be nonlethal projectiles aimed at extricating a person from a building.
At 12:37 midday Friday, Combs watched a robot machine break down the subject’s door, she told Cowboy State Daily. Her roommate had tried to walk the dog 30 minutes prior, and police told him to return to his apartment, Combs said.
Both Combs and her roommate have been seeing multiple agents in camouflage tactical gear. She first noticed tactical-gear agents in the area as early as Thursday evening, she said, but didn’t think there was a major incident going on at that point.
One of Combs’ neighbors has been lingering on her side of the complex, said Combs, due to being evacuated from the subject’s immediate sphere at about 2:30 in the morning.
The Natrona County Sheriff's Office's 1:15 p.m. update says residents who don't need to access the apartment complex should avoid the area. Residents were evacuated Thursday night out of precaution, but other building residents can keep accessing the apartment at the direction of on-scene investigators.
The announcement of the ending of the incident was short with little information other than nobody was hurt. The shriff's office also expressed appreciation for local residents for their "understanding while law enforcement worked to resolve this incident."
Natrona County Sheriff’s Office agents are stationed at a barricaded subject’s apartment in the Quail Run complex in Casper. (Courtesy Tami Combs) 
Natrona County Sheriff’s Office agents are stationed at a barricaded subject’s apartment in the Quail Run complex in Casper. (Courtesy Tami Combs) 
Natrona County Sheriff’s Office agents are stationed at a barricaded subject’s apartment in the Quail Run complex in Casper. (Courtesy Tami Combs) 
An apartment building was evacuated while Casper police negotiated with a suspect barricaded in one of the apartments Friday. (Todd Titus, Cowboy State Daily) 
An apartment building was evacuated while Casper police negotiated with a suspect barricaded in one of the apartments Friday. (Todd Titus, Cowboy State Daily) 
An apartment building was evacuated while Casper police negotiated with a suspect barricaded in one of the apartments Friday. (Todd Titus, Cowboy State Daily)
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
