Officers Storm House, Arrest Man
Standoff Ends With Tear Gas, SWAT Team
Posted: December 18, 2009 at 3:08 a.m.
Deputies with the Benton County Sheriff’s Office Special Weapons and Tactics Team stormed a house near Beaver Lake on Thursday after a three-hour standoff with a man threatening suicide.
Police identified the man as Daniel Howard Walden, 39, of Larue. The house is located off Arkansas 303 east of Rogers.
Sheriff Keith Ferguson said he gave the order about 3 p.m. to fire tear gas into the residence and send in the tactical team after losing phone contact with Walden.
The man exited the house after the tear gas exploded and was taken into custody at approximately 3:10 p.m. No one was injured, the sheriff said.
Ferguson said law enforcement officials were talking to Walden via phone from noon until approximately 2 p.m. The last phone call resulted in the phone being lifted, then hung up.
The man had been taking Demerol, Ferguson said, which belongs to a group of drugs called narcotic pain relievers.
Demerol is similar to morphine. It works by dulling the pain perception center in the brain and is used to treat moderate-to-severe pain. An overdose of Demerol can be fatal, according to information from the web site Drugs.com.
A doctor told Ferguson that, if the man was indeed ingesting Demerol, it was a matter of time before he died.
That information, Ferguson said, led to his decision to send in the SWAT team.
Walden was arrested March 11, 2008, on a rape charge and is awaiting trial, Ferguson said.
Ferguson said he did not know what charges, if any, would be filed from Thursday’s incident.
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