Authorities find no firearms after seven hour standoff

A secondary search this morning of the storm drain where Eli Swartzentruber was holed up for seven hours yesterday has come up empty. Police were searching for the rifle that Swartzentruber claimed to have when he entered the storm drain yesterday around 10 a.m. While no firearms have been located, live ammunition, a machete, and a scythe were found yesterday after he was apprehended.

See our live coverage as it unfolded HERE

Bloomington PD confirmed that Swartzentruber was taken from the scene to a hospital for dog bite wounds sustained from a K-9 unit.

BPD also confirmed that the loud bangs heard shortly before apprehending Swartzentruber was not gunfire of any sort. It’s possible the sounds came from noise-flash diversionary devices used by the state SWAT team, according to an officer at the Indiana State Police office in Bloomington.

Franklin Hall on IU Bloomington’s campus wasn’t the only place directly impacted by the incident. The Project School went into lockdown and was eventually evacuated during the standoff.

On Tuesday morning BPD received a call that a man, later identified as Eli Swartzentruber, was swinging a metal bar at a group of people in Seminary Park. While en-route, officers got another call that he had retrieved a hatchet from a car and the Kroger parking lot across the street and had thrown it at the group.

Eventually, Swartzentruber fled into a storm drain, and when officers told him to leave the drain, he told them he had a rifle and would shoot them if they followed him in.

This led to the 7-hour standoff between BPD, the Bloomington Incident Critical Response Team, and a SWAT Team from Indiana State Police.

Around 3 p.m., authorities made contact with him, offering water and asking him to come out with his hands up. Eventually, Swartzentruber agreed to exit north, but then destroyed a camera deployed by the SWAT team and went southwest, further into the drains.

A release from BPD said officers sent a K-9 in and caught the suspect at 5 p.m.

Following treatment, Swartzentruber was taken to the Monroe County Jail and was remanded for attempted battery with a deadly weapon, a level 5 felony, and intimidation, a level 6 felony.

Police said the investigation is ongoing and there could be more charges filed.

The BPD release said Swartzentruber is a person who is experiencing homelessness.

Swartzentruber has an outstanding arrest warrant in Daviess County for Battery Against a Public Safety Official, according to BPD.