Suspect arrested after police standoff Monday at home in Great Falls
In a city unaccustomed to daily acts of violent crime, the last week and month have proven that Great Falls is not immune to the scourge of violence in its streets.
On Monday morning, for the third time in four days, Great Falls police units were called to respond to a potentially violent armed encounter. Shortly after 7 a.m. the Great Falls Police Department issued a traffic alert warning motorists that 1st Avenue North between 28th Street and 29th Street had been blocked and that "community members will see a large police presence" in that area.
More than a half dozen law enforcement vehicles encircled a small house at 2812 1st Ave. North, blocking both the main thoroughfare and the alley behind it. An ambulance stood idling a couple of blocks down, its first responders waiting for the call if they were needed.
Police in full body armor took positions both in front of house's main entrance and behind in the alley, where an officer repeated the same amplified message every few minutes.
"Anthony you are under arrest," the officer said. "You need to come out the open door to the alley with your hands up and empty, or we cannot guarantee your safety."
Police also asked for anyone else in the building to come out with their hands up. There appeared to be no response.
According to a GFPD news release issued shortly after noon on Monday, the incident began at around midnight Sunday when 911 dispatchers received reports of a disturbance on the 600 block of 4th Street South. The caller reported that one person had been shot.
"Upon arrival, officers discovered one person with what appeared to be a non-life threatening gunshot wound," the news release states. Those present at the scene identified the suspect as 37 year-old Anthony Wills.
Four hours later Wills showed up at the house at 2812 1st Avenue North. Police arrived there a short time later, at first maintaining a safe distance until their High Risk Unit was assembled. The warning to residents and travelers in the area was released three hours later.
By 7 a.m. the surrounding neighborhood, just a block up from Holy Spirit Catholic School, was oddly silent. Small groups of people stood on their porches or on the street corners watching the drama unfold. First Avenue North, normally crowded with commuters heading to work, was deserted.
"Stay away from the street up the block," a clerk at the Peres Food Basket convenience store warned. "It's terrible."
Repeatedly through the morning loud explosions of what appeared to be tear gas canisters concussed the neighborhood. Officers wearing gas masks took a position behind a parked vehicle in the home's driveway, while a police drone buzzed overhead.
"Wills refused to exit the residence for approximately five hours," the most recent police briefing states. "During that time officers attempted to negotiate with Wills, deployed chemical munitions, noise distraction devices, and audible commands to comply."
At approximately 11 a.m. Wills surrendered without incident and was taken into custody without injury to himself or the officers who confronted him.
Over the past month at least five people have been shot in Great Falls, involving everyone from a 15-year-old shot in the stomach while walking to school, to a decorated police officer shot while attempting to apprehend a fleeing suspect, to a man shot and killed on the street near a convenience store, and an unidentified victim shot and killed in a usually quiet neighborhood at the base of Gore Hill.
Great Falls police have not indicated whether any of these incidents are interrelated, or whether the city is just the unfortunate victim of a coincidental spree of violent crime.
This article originally appeared on Great Falls Tribune: Great Falls police in armed standoff with suspect on 1st Ave. North
