Rock Springs Man Arrested After Standoff With Deputies
A 48-year-old Rock Springs man is behind bars following a standoff with Sweetwater County Sheriff's deputies on Wednesday, according to a spokesman for the Sweetwater County Sheriff's Department.
Dick Blust says Fred Wilkening Jr. (shown in photo) was wanted on a probation revocation bench warrant (on original charges of stalking and two counts of Violation of a Protection Order). Blust says deputies spotted Wilkening driving a pickup west on Sunset Drive Wednesday afternoon and stopped his vehicle.
But Wilkening refused to get out of his vehicle, and deputies didn't know whether he had a gun. More sheriff's deputies blocked off the scene, and officers from the Rock Springs Police Department and Wyoming Highway Patrol troopers arrived on the scene as well.
But as deputies tried to get Wilkening to leave his pickup, he shouted obscenities at them and told them to shoot him. After a while, Blust says Wilkening got out of his vehicle and began walking toward the deputies, shouting ''kill me'' and ''pull the trigger."
As he refused orders to stop and got closer, a deputy shot him with a less-lethal "bean bag" round fired from a special shotgun. After a scuffle, Wilkening was finally arrested.
EMS medics at the scene gave him a medical examination and found he didn't need to go to a hospital.
Wilkening was then taken to jail, originally charged with the bench warrant and Interference with a Police Officer. He now faces additional charges of Domestic Battery, False Imprisonment, and stalking in another case.
At last report, he was being held on a $30,000 cash or surety bond.