UPDATE 2/6/21 5 PM
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — A Nebraska man was hospitalized after a standoff with police that took place Friday at a construction site in Council Bluffs.
Council Bluffs Police said 40-year-old Ryan Linehan of Omaha was arrested after the standoff after he shot himself in the lower jaw. He was in stable condition afterward at an Omaha hospital.
The standoff began Friday morning when officers tried to arrest Linehan on a warrant for first-degree sexual assault.
When officers approached, Linehan ran back to the excavator he had been operating and swung the equipment’s bucket at the officers.
Negotiators spent several hours trying to persuade Linehan to surrender before he shot himself.
UPDATED 2/05/2021 8:30 p.m.
A standoff with law enforcement that began Friday morning ended Friday evening with an arrest.
U.S. Marshal Will Iverson said that the suspect was shot with "less lethal rounds and taken into custody with injuries."
Iverson indicated that the identity of the man, who is wanted on charges of child sexual assault in Sarpy County, will be released once he is booked into jail.
UPDATED 2/05/2021 5:45 p.m.
Friday morning, 3 News Now Western Iowa reporter, Isabella Basco was at the Council Bluffs YMCA, reporting on another story when the facility went into lockdown because a wanted man was refusing to leave a backhoe near the site.
She spoke to a law enforcement spokesperson who said that the Council Bluffs Police Department and the U. S. Marshals served a warrant for the man's arrest. The spokesperson told 3 News Now that negotiators are on the scene and "now it's a waiting game."
Late Friday afternoon, 3 News Now spoke with Will Iverson from the U.S. Marshal Fugitive Task Force who said the suspect is facing a warrant for sexual assault of a child. Iverson said that marshals tried to arrest the man around 10:30 a.m. at the construction site, but he refused to exit an excavator that he was operating at the time. According to Marshals, the excavator has been parked, but the man refuses to exit the equipment and he is armed with a handgun.
Listen to audio of Isabella's first interview with a law enforcement spokesperson above.
The area is blocked off by police, including part of East Kanesville Blvd.
Recent construction on a new parking lot at the YMCA has been at the center of a controversy. St. Patrick's church is expected to be torn down to build the parking lot and some local groups would prefer to see the historic building preserved.
SEE ALSO: Preservationists are trying to save St. Patrick's Church
This is a developing story.
