CNN logo
Navigation

Infoseek/Big Yellow


Pathfinder/Warner Bros


Barnes and Noble






Main banner
rule

Troopers grab troubled woman, end Illinois standoff

ambulance Latest developments: October 30, 1997
Web posted at: 9:34 p.m. EST (0234 GMT)

ROBY, Illinois (CNN) -- Shirley A. Allen, a mentally disturbed woman who held police off for 39 days with a shotgun and entertained herself by listening to public radio, was captured Thursday and taken to a hospital.

"The good news is she's safe," said Terrance Gainer, Illinois state police director. "The great news is nobody got seriously hurt or killed."

The standoff ended when Allen ventured out on the deck behind her home to throw away food and water left for her by the police. On her third trip, she stooped to cut a wire attached to a pail in which a police camera was hidden.

A trooper fired six rubber bullets at her, striking her two or three times and knocking her to the deck, where she was captured.

"They have zapped my head with radar. I have swelling and inflammation of the brain."

— Shirley Allen, in a May 1996 letter to her mother

Gainer said that Allen, who wore a full camouflage suit padded with a pillow and magazines, was examined at a hospital and reported to be in good condition with no apparent injuries. She was feisty enough after the ordeal to scold police for their tactics during the standoff.

Gainer said she is still in custody and will undergo a psychiatric examination.

"I think she's probably as relieved right now as we are that this is over," said Allen's brother, Byron Dugger, who talked with her after she was captured.

Gainer said Allen asked Dugger to open his mouth to prove he wasn't someone wearing a mask that looked like him.

'They have zapped my head with radar'

trooper
vxtreme
CNN's Lisa Price reports.

The standoff in this small central Illinois town began September 22 when Allen, 51, brandished a shotgun as her brother and sheriff's deputies tried to take her in for a court-ordered evaluation.

Allen's relatives were concerned because she had become increasingly depressed and paranoid since her husband died of pancreatic cancer in 1989. More recently, she had refused to see or talk to her brother or her 86-year-old mother.

In a letter to her mother in May 1996, Allen wrote, "They have zapped my head with radar. I have swelling and inflammation of the brain."

She did not say who "they" were, but when police offered her water after she was captured, she said "the helicopters" told her not to drink it. There were no helicopters in sight, but she finally drank the water after troopers drank some to prove it wasn't poisoned.

She told them she hadn't eaten or had anything to drink in three days.

Allen also talked to her daughter, Kate Waddell, after she was captured. "But she wasn't quite sure it was Mrs. Waddell," Gainer said.

Allen's case attracted the sympathy of many neighbors and became a rallying point for some who called it "Roby Ridge," likening it to shootouts at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and Waco, Texas, as an example of overzealous law enforcement.

Standoff cost taxpayers about $1 million

Allen window

Others questioned the expense of the standoff. Gainer tackled that one head-on at a news conference Thursday, saying it was about $15,000 a day. He estimated the total cost of the operation at $750,000 to $1 million.

Obviously relieved that Allen was taken alive, an unapologetic Gainer said, "But I don't think Mrs. Shirley Allen is worth a cent less than that."

Police tried to get Allen out of her green frame farmhouse with tear gas, pepper spray and music. They also tried to coax her out with a visit from her favorite stepdaughter. This week, they began giving her food and restored her power, which had been shut off earlier, in a goodwill gesture they hoped would calm her down.

Allen had fought off tear gas by smearing her face with petroleum jelly and withstood beanbag bullets by wearing heavy layers of clothing.

She apparently slept in a sleeping bag in the living room -- the room where her husband died -- and had two transistor radios with earplugs. Gainer said the radios were tuned to a local public radio station.

Protesters gathered daily to support her and criticized the police.

'Mrs. Allen is where she needs to be'

"The good feeling is it's over for her. The bad feeling is how she's going to be trapped after this is over with," said John Powers, a neighbor and one of the protesters. "We don't know if they'll treat her as a person who is sane or as a person who tried to shoot their dog."

Although Allen fired at state troopers and wounded a police dog sent into her home Sunday, "it would serve no useful purpose to charge her," Gainer said. "Given what we have known from Day 1, Mrs. Allen is where she needs to be right now."

Reporter Lisa Price and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 
rule

Related stories:


Infoseek search  


rule
Message Boards Sound off on our
message boards


You said it...
rule
To the top

© 1997 Cable News Network, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.

Terms under which this service is provided to you.