SWAT storms home to end Haysville standoff

[wooslider slider_type=”attachments” limit=”6″ thumbnails=”default”]

Haysville — Saturday afternoon the Haysville Feed Mill served as a staging area for emergency response and special weapons and tactics team members from five local law enforcement agencies.

They were called out after a deputy responded to a shots fired call at a residence on Seitz Street on the northwest edge of the town. The call came in around 10:45 a.m. after 46-year-old Brian K. Mehringer’s girlfriend ran to a neighbor’s house after Mehringer fired a single shot in the home.

When a deputy attempted to make contact with Mehringer, there was no response except for another shot ringing out from inside the home.

At that point other area police departments were called in to contain the scene. Indiana State Police units joined the Dubois County Sheriff’s deputies in surrounding the house and establishing road blocks around a six block section of town. Residents in the area were directed to stay out of sight of the home due to reports that Mehringer owned a high-power .338 caliber rifle with a scope.

Police obtained a search warrant for the home and arrest warrant for Mehringer from the Dubois County Superior Court and began to attempt to contact Mehringer using a loudspeaker and telephone, but Mehringer maintained his silence from inside the home.

The county’s Emergency Response Team, composed of officers from Huntingburg, Ferdinand and Jasper Police Departments as well as the sheriff’s department, and the Indiana State Police SWAT Team were activated and responded to a staging area established at the Haysville Feed Mill.

Haysville Volunteer Fire Fighters and police officers began setting up roadblocks around a six block area encompassing the short street.

At the nearby Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church parking lot, family and friends of Brian Mehringer gathered and attempted to contact him by phone, but Mehringer never answered any of their calls. Their last contact with him had been around 11:00 a.m.

While police and family members continued their attempts to contact Mehringer, a specially outfitted Humvee arrived at the Haysville Feed Mill where SWAT officers attached a ram before driving to the home.

Once the Humvee was at the scene, SWAT and ERT officers covered behind the truck as it drove up to the house. An officer sat in the vehicle’s turret with a rifle trained on the home the entire time as the teams positioned themselves on the property waiting to enter the home.

The Humvee then broke the front door to the home down. The house was dark inside and the loudspeaker continued to order Mehringer to respond or to surrender with no response.

Facing a tactical issue with officers having to enter the darkened home from the sunshine, the Humvee began to methodically break the windows around the entrance to the home, removing the blinds to improve the lighting for the tactical teams.

A State Police remotely operated vehicle (ROV) with a camera was then driven into the home to attempt to find Mehringer but when authorities were unable see him, the decision was made to enter the residence.

At 3:45, five hours after the initial call , officers streamed into the home and moments later found Mehringer sitting at the kitchen table with a gun beside him.

After he refused to comply with their orders to get on the ground, officers used a Taser to subdue him before taking him into custody and ending the standoff.

Mehringer was taken by ambulance to Memorial Hospital where he was examined and medically cleared. He was booked into the Dubois County Security Center on a Class D felony count of criminal recklessness with a firearm.

The Haysville Volunteer Fire Department, Memorial Hospital Emergency Medical Services and the Jasper Police Department also assisted.