CASPER — Casper Police evacuated two businesses late Wednesday afternoon and then were able to negotiate the surrender of a man on the second floor of the building whom his mother said is wanted for murder.
Casper Police Department spokesperson Rebekah Ladd confirmed the department executed a felony arrest warrant in the area near Veteran’s Park off Second Street.
Police vehicles were seen leaving the parking area on East Collins Drive adjacent to the park at 6 p.m.
“The suspect was brought into custody without incident,” Ladd said, adding he wasn’t immediately being identified. “Further information will be available tomorrow.”
Witnesses to the law enforcement operation said a half-dozen police vehicles showed up and an officer used a bullhorn to talk in Spanish and English with the suspect, who was in a second-floor apartment in the wedge-shaped structure with an attached two-story brown concrete building.
A woman walking around the building identified herself as Robin Behan, the suspect’s mother.
She said her son’s name was Alejandro Behan and he had “gone back home” to Riverton for a visit “and it turns out he was wanted for homicide.”
An online address search shows a Robin Behan who lives in Riverton.
She said she did not know anything about the alleged homicide and was unaware of the charge.
“I thought he was wanted for probation, that’s why the cops were looking for him,” she said. “I got their phone number so I could tell him to call them. By that time the cops came, and a lot of them came.”
‘You Need To Wake Up And Go’
“I said, 'I don’t know what you did, but you need to wake up and go,'” she said. “And I came out and that’s when all the cops were here and they asked me if he was there, and I told them, ‘Yes.'”
She said her son did not surrender and the that the officers “had to go in and get him,” but he did not resist them.
Robin Behan said her son was trying to turn his life around and they had been staying at a homeless shelter. Her son had landed some job interviews.
Garrett Miskimins, who works at the State Farm Insurance office attached to the building, said he noticed an officer knocking on doors to the apartments upstairs and there was no answer.
He said the officer came back with an AR-14 “big machine gun and tried again and still there was no answer.”
About 15 minutes later, the officer knocked on the insurance agency's office door and told them they had to evacuate because “they were trying to apprehend a homicide suspect upstairs and everybody on the first floor had to get out immediately.”
Miskimins, who sells insurance, said the office agent was in her office on the phone and they closed their office for the day “in a hurry.”
Even A Drone
After leaving the office, Miskimins said he observed the situation for a time from Park Street and saw several police vehicles, “at least a half-dozen.”
“They had a megaphone negotiator that was speaking in I think both Spanish and English to him,” he said. “They actually had a drone flying directly above the apartment building and I saw the operator next door.”
After about 15 minutes, he said he saw the incident wind down after he saw someone being escorted across the parking lot in handcuffs.
At the 4 Bidden Leaf Health and Wellness Store on the first floor next to the insurance company, owner Ashlee Taylor said officers made them evacuate the building for safety purposes from about 5-6 p.m.
She said she saw a “couple people” led away in handcuffs but didn’t know much more as the police sorted the situation out.
“They didn’t really talk to us about anything,” she said.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
