MILLS — A five-hour standoff involving an armed Mills man who barricaded himself inside his home and fired at police “has been resolved.”
Natrona County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Kiera Hett said at 4:30 p.m. the hour-long event she characterized as “an active situation” that closed a quarter-mile of a Mills neighborhood street was “resolved.”
“I can’t say much more at this point,” she said.
Hett declined to answer other questions regarding how the situation was resolved.
Mills police went to the home on Badger Lane in the southern part of the city between 11 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. to serve a fugitive warrant. The man refused to come out and barricaded himself inside the home, Hett said.
After negotiations stalled, the Natrona County Special Response team responded to the scene around 1:15 p.m. as well as members of the crisis negotiation team. Around that same time frame, the suspect fired a single shot from the residence.
“There were no shots fired by law enforcement,” Hett said.
Between 3 and 3:30 p.m. members of the negotiating team could be heard over a loudspeaker urging the man to surrender.
“Come out of the house with your hands in the air,” an officer said over the speaker at about 3:15 p.m. A short while later the message was repeated with the words “throw down your weapon and come out with your hands in the air.”
Officers from the Mills Police Department, Casper Police Department and the NCSO responded to the area. Badger Lane was blocked off to the north at Pontiac Street and to the south at River Crossing.
Badger Lane residents returning home Wednesday afternoon were asked where on the street they resided. Some who lived closer to Pontiac Street were allowed to go to their home.
Mills residents on Badger Lane were stopped at Pontiac Street on Wednesday during a nearly five-hour standoff between the Natrona County Sheriff's Office and a suspect. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Officers from Mills, Natrona County, and Casper responded to an armed standoff in Mills on Wednesday afternoon. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily)
Needy Dog
A woman with a rental car uniform, who did not want to be identified, asked a Mills city employee manning a street blockade if she could go let her dog out, who had been inside all day.
She was allowed past the barrier.
A family of three, including dad, mom, and son, who also did not want to be identified, said they lived two doors from the barricade. They said they did not know the name of the individual involved.
“I came home for lunch they first told me it was our house,” the woman said. “It’s two houses down.”
Asked if there had ever been issues before on the block, she smiled and just said: “It’s just a lively block.”
Hett said the man was alone in the home and that neighbors surrounding the residence had been evacuated.
The Natrona County School District put out a statement advising parents that all NCSD students whose bus stop is Freden Park in Mills would be transported from their respective school to the school district’s bus hub on Eighth Street in Casper.
Hett said at 4:30 p.m. that neighbors were not yet allowed to return to their homes but would be shortly.
Hett said the investigation is ongoing and that the department would release more information when it was complete.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
