Flathead fugitive nabbed after gunfire, chase
After evading a Flathead County arrest warrant for nearly eight years, a Washington man was captured Thursday after a charged standoff with police, gunfire and a car chase in the Tri-Cities area.
Kirk Dwight Riddle, 45, was taken into custody after authorities tried to serve an outstanding warrant on him at a home in Prosser, Washington.
Riddle came outside with a rifle and a deputy opened fire when Riddle would not put the weapon down. Riddle retreated back inside and a standoff began involving U.S. marshals and a SWAT team.
Riddle’s sister, Vanessa Lillian Rogers, 43, then allegedly pulled a vehicle to the edge of the property so he could escape. Riddle led authorities on a chase that spanned two counties before he was taken into custody without further resistance near Grandview eight miles away.
Riddle was charged with two counts of felony assault and is being held for extradition on the Flathead County warrant. He is being held by the Benton County Sheriff’s Office without bail.
Rogers was charged with obstructing a law enforcement officer and posted $1,000 bail.
Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry said Friday that Riddle will be extradited back to Flathead County Detention Center after the new charges in Washington are resolved. Curry said the U.S. Marshals Service had been looking for Riddle for a while.
It is not uncommon for felons to avoid capture for several years, Curry said.
“It’s not terribly unusual,” Curry said. “It’s a big country and if he manages to get out of state and avoid law enforcement, it’s easy to fly under the radar. It’s not terribly unusual for people to be on the run for a terribly long time.”
Riddle was identified as a flight risk when he tangled with the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office in 2007. Riddle was convicted of criminal endangerment for severely beating a man on March 22, 2007. He followed the victim home after an argument in the Silver Bullet Bar and then beat the man. The victim had a broken ankle, broken nose and multiple facial fractures.
At the time, Flathead District Judge Ted O. Lympus denied a request to lower Riddle’s $100,000 bond because he was believed to be at risk of fleeing.
During the bail hearing, prosecutor Daniel Guzynski said it was concerning that the crime’s “motive may be pure hatred and the people involved didn’t even know each other.”
Riddle also didn’t have many roots in Flathead County, prosecutors pointed out, since he had lost his job at a tire shop.
Riddle said that he had first moved to the Flathead Valley in 2000 or 2001 with his first wife. He and his second wife moved to Walla Walla, Washington, in 2003 when she got a better job, but the pair decided to come back to the Flathead in 2006 because it was a better place to raise their children.
Prosecutors said at the time that Riddle had been charged with multiple lesser assault charges and had one misdemeanor assault conviction on his record.
For the felony criminal endangerment case, Riddle received a six-year deferred sentence in June 2007. He shortly thereafter absconded from probation and did not show up to court in September 2007 for a petition to revoke the suspended sentence.
A $50,000 warrant was issued for Riddle’s arrest on Jan. 22, 2008. He also has more than $7,600 outstanding in restitution that he was supposed to pay for the victim’s medical bills.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Reporter Megan Strickland can be reached at 758-4459 or mstrickland@dailyinterlake.com.