OTTUMWA — Crowds gathered, and the rumor mill was running at full speed Wednesday during a standoff that ended in one arrest.

After officers responded to a fire call at 337 N. Hancock St. at 1:17 p.m. Wednesday, they found a disoriented female and a sawed-off shotgun — both barrel and stock were sawed off — in a small garage behind the residence.

“A sawed-off weapon is a close-range weapon that can be hidden under clothes, carried in bags and easily concealed,” said Ottumwa Police Department’s Lt. Tom McAndrew. “It’s a powerful weapon. When you shoot it, it shoots several pellets that spread fast.”

Based on their discovery, officers then established a perimeter around the property and began working on obtaining a search warrant for entry into the residence.

At approximately 4 p.m. Wednesday, Keith Edward Hewitt, 26, of Ottumwa, attempted to escape from the residence.

After a short foot chase, officers arrested Hewitt on warrants for charges of driving while barred, prevention of apprehension and harassment of a public official on Aug. 1.

He was charged with an additional count of interference with official acts and is being held in Wapello County Jail on $24,600 bond.

Hewitt has pleaded not guilty to the first three charges; his preliminary hearing is set for 10 a.m. Aug. 31.

Thirty minutes after Hewitt was arrested, officers began blocking off surrounding streets with caution tape and asking bystanders to stay back.

“We don’t send anything out because that would just draw a crowd,” McAndrew said. “If there’s gunfire, it’s obviously a concern if a big crowd is around the area. Someone might be injured or killed.”

McAndrew said officers explained this to those in the crowd, and while a few left, most stuck around to see what would come of the standoff.

“People bring their kids to watch,” he said. “I had to tell several parents to take their children away, but they have a right to be there. A rifle or handgun can shoot a mile, so we can’t shut down a mile around the house in a situation like that. We just hope people would use common sense.”

If anyone were to be injured or killed, McAndrew said the OPD could be sued, even if officers had advised people to leave the area.

Several rumors spread through the crowds during the standoff, from a meth lab to a violent domestic dispute, as well as online, with social media blowing up with questions and rumors as to what was happening.

“I don’t know how to quash a rumor like that going around town,” McAndrew said. “Our concern was because it happened quick to get it secured.”

McAndrew said people even told him they saw officers shoot Hewitt with bean bag rounds to capture him after he escaped.

“They said they watched us shoot him, but we didn’t have any bean bag rounds there,” McAndrew said. “It was a foot chase and we tackled him.”

During an interview following the standoff Wednesday night, McAndrew said there were warrants for a second subject officers had believed to be in the house. This was incorrect, as Hewitt was the only subject wanted on warrants.

The public does not need to be concerned about a second subject, McAndrew said.

“At the time we were getting the search warrant prepared, we knew from neighbors that at one time six people were living there,” he said. “We could account for four of those six, so we had every reason to believe there were two more inside the house.”

At about 8 p.m. Wednesday, members of the Ottumwa Emergency Response Team executed the search warrant at the residence, which was found to be unoccupied upon entry.

“We knew that [Hewitt] was probably there [originally] and was a suspect in a previous burglary of weapons, which is why we had the emergency response team there,” McAndrew said.

Many were frustrated that the standoff took hours to end due to the need for a search warrant to enter the residence.

“The circumstances in this case, we really had to do a lot of work as far as putting the search warrant together,” McAndrew said following the standoff Wednesday night. “It took a lot of information. We had two investigators working, combining their work to do the search warrant, so it took a long time to get the search warrant put together.”

When officers executed the first search warrant, they observed items consistent with a burglary from a cabin along the Des Moines River in rural Wapello County on Tuesday.

The second search warrant included the items from the burglary, which officers seized.

The search of the property was completed at 2:30 a.m. Thursday. The investigation is ongoing and further arrests are pending.

McAndrew said the “disoriented female” identified in the first report is doing well.



Hewitt no stranger to OPD

On April 6, the Ottumwa Police Department asked for the public’s help in locating any property sold or offered to be sold by Keith Edward Hewitt.

Officers said the property could have included handguns, black powder, revolvers and semi-automatics, as well as silver certificate bills and collector coins.

Hewitt was recently charged with attempted first-degree burglary, joint criminal conduct and possession of a controlled substance on July 11.

Hewitt has previously been charged with interference with official acts, assault causing bodily injury, driving while barred, third-degree burglary and other controlled substance charges.