Samuel Baumgartner was arrested Friday night after law enforcement worked eight hours to extract him from his barricaded room at Homewood Suites in southwest Bloomington, where police said he had been holding his 87-year-old mother, a rifle and a small dog.
He was taken into custody at 8:32 p.m. on five new charges and two active warrants out of Monroe and Owen counties, failure to register as a sex offender and resisting law enforcement, respectively. The new charges are:
- Criminal confinement with a deadly weapon, a level three felony
- Unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon, a level four felony
- Resisting law enforcement using a deadly weapon, a level six felony
- Criminal mischief, a class A misdemeanor
- Disorderly conduct, a class B misdemeanor
Monroe County Sheriff Deputies learned Baumgartner resided at Homewood Suites where they attempted to serve the active warrants at 12:30 p.m. Because they were unable to fully open Baumgartner’s door, but saw Baumgartner with a rifle, deputies retreated and requested the Critical Incident Response Team’s help. The sheriff’s office, Indiana State Police and the Bloomington Police Department then evacuated the hotel and remained on scene for several hours.
CIRT negotiators safely removed Baumgartner’s mother and dog from the hotel room at 7:19 p.m. and Baumgartner an hour later. No shots were fired.
The scene at Homewood Suites was busy during the operation — numerous police vehicles filled the hotel’s parking lot and the neighboring Valvoline Instant Oil Change parking lot as dozens of officers responded. Several snipers watched the second-floor room from the adjacent Honda Service Center.
A hotel manager said she had never seen something like it in her eight years working there.
