Suspect taken into custody after standoff
SWAT team members prepare to enter a home involved in a standoff off Whitefish Stage Road in Kalispell on Wednesday, Feb. 12. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
SWAT team members take a suspect into custody involved in a standoff in a mobile home park off Whitefish Stage Road in Kalispell on Wednesday. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
SWAT members and police place a suspect into custody during an alleged standoff in a mobile home park off Whitefish Stage Road in Kalispell on Wednesday, Feb. 12. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
A suspect was taken into custody early Wednesday afternoon at a mobile home park off Whitefish Stage Road following an incident that lasted several hours and involved the Kalispell Police Department and Flathead County Sheriff’s Office Special Response Teams.
A man identified as Steven Personette, 35, of Kalispell, was taken into custody. He is being held at the Flathead County Detention Center on charges of assault with a weapon and partner/family member assault.
Authorities responded to a report of a disturbance with a weapon on the lower west side of Kalispell around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, according to a press release from the Kalispell Police Department.
By the time Kalispell police officers arrived on scene, they were informed the suspect had fled. They located the suspect’s vehicle at a residence off Whitefish Stage Road and surrounded the residence. When officers attempted contact with the suspect, he did not respond to requests to come out of the residence, so the Sheriff’s Office Special Response Teams and Kalispell officers “secured the residence pending a search warrant.”
Tactical team officers then deployed a “distraction device” outside the residence and the suspect voluntarily came out of the residence and was taken into custody without incident or injury to any hostages.