Suspect in standoff pleads innocent

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

July 2, 1997

By Devlyn Brooks

Staff Writer

A rural Kelliher man charged with felony second-degree assault in connection with a June armed standoff with sheriff's deputies pleaded innocent Monday in Beltrami County District Court.

Larry Leroy Freeman, 47, who has remained in jail since the June 13 standoff in Woodrow Township, pleaded innocent and requested a speedy trial before District Judge Terrance Holter. At a June 17 arraignment hearing, bail was set at $75,000 with a number of conditions, including no drinking, no contact with the victim and no guns.

Freeman allegedly came home at about 8:30 p.m. June 13 and grabbed his live-in girlfriend, Joanne Brandon, shouted obscenities and dragged her into the bedroom, where he kept a loaded .22-caliber pistol by the bed, according to court records. He allegedly threatened to kill her and any police officers who showed up.

Brandon, and her 17-year-old son, managed to escape from the house, and they called deputies from a nearby phone.

After meeting with here and her son, officers approached the house, in which the suspect was holed up and allegedly making repeated references to sites of anti-governmental uprisings in Waco, Texas; Ruby Ridge, Mont.; and Oklahoma City.

About 11:30 p.m., a tactical unit arrived at the scene, and after an hour of silence from the suspect, it rushed the door and broke it in with a battering ram. The suspect reportedly was found intoxicated and passed out on the floor. He was arrested and charged with second degree assault.