Man arrested in standoff with SWAT faces assault charge
Law enforcement personnel take a suspect into custody after an assault with a weapon call turned into an armed standoff between Second and Third Avenue West North in Kalispell on Tuesday, April 11. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Law enforcement personnel take a suspect into custody after an assault with a weapon call turned into an armed standoff between Second and Third Avenue West North in Kalispell on Tuesday, April 11. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
A Kalispell Police Special Response Team vehicle approaches the scene of an assault with a weapon call that turned into an armed standoff between Second and Third Avenue West North in Kalispell on Tuesday, April 11. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Prosecutors formally filed a felony assault with a weapon charge against the 52-year-old man arrested following a standoff near West Idaho Street in Kalispell earlier this week.
Erik Allen Rodriguez remains behind bars in the county jail with no bail listed following the April 11 confrontation involving multiple area law enforcement agencies, including the Kalispell Police Department’s special response team and the Northwest Montana regional SWAT. Officials have not yet set an arraignment date for him in Flathead County District Court.
Court documents filed in the case largely align with details given to the Daily Inter Lake by Mark Jones, the Kalispell resident who phoned authorities after Rodriguez — armed with a rifle — allegedly threatened to kill him.
Jones had been shopping at a nearby store when he cut through the alley behind Second Avenue West North about 10:42 a.m., court documents said. There, he came across the man later identified as Rodriguez, who began gesturing and yelling at him, according to court documents.
Jones told the Inter Lake earlier this week that Rodriguez laid down a two-wheeled vehicle in the alley before apparently taking off. After navigating around the vehicle, Jones glanced up at his rear view mirror and saw that Rodriguez had returned — with a rifle.
Jones said he was too concerned with the threat posed by the weapon to get many details about it.
“All I could focus on was the scope and the hole at the end of the gun,” he said.
Prosecutors described the weapon as a .300 lever action rifle, which they later retrieved from Rodriguez’s camper, which was parked in the alleyway.
After trying to confront Rodriguez, Jones backed away and left in his pickup truck. He parked nearby and phoned police, he said.
Authorities, who issued a steady stream of press releases to the public as the standoff stretched on, declared the situation resolved about 12:25 p.m. Court documents indicate that Rodriguez holed up in the camper, but eventually exited and was taken into custody.
Rodriguez allegedly admitted to aiming his rifle at an individual in the alleyway earlier in the day, court documents said.
News Editor Derrick Perkins can be reached at 758-4430 or dperkins@dailyinterlake.com.
