Troopers grab troubled woman, end Illinois standoff
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
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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'
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
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.