ATHOL — An eight-hour standoff between State Police and a 56-year-old man who refused to surrender himself from the confines of his home led to his arrest at 3 a.m. yesterday.
The incident had been reported as a hostage situation by some local media, although a State Police report did not indicate that.
Jeffrey Wheeler of South Street was wanted for threatening a state judge. When police arrived at his home around 7 p.m. to serve a warrant for his arrest, he refused to give himself up, State Police said in a press release this morning.
Although Wheeler has had his license to carry a gun revoked in the past, police believed he might have been armed. He also might have had access to cameras on his property showing him the position of people outside his South Street home. Multiple attempts to ask him to surrender were turned down, police said.
This led to an escalation in the conditions, and the State Police Special Tactical Operations Team was called in.
Around 3 a.m. police gained entry into his home and used a Taser on Wheeler to “subdue the hostile suspect in order to take him into custody without using lethal force and without significant injury to him or to them,” police said. Wheeler was first brought to the hospital for evaluation and then to the State Police Athol Barracks for booking.
Police expect Wheeler to be arraigned in Orange District Court today.
Multiple attempts were made late last night to reach state and local police for information regarding the situation, but all parties declined to comment, stating any information had to be given out by the media relations team at a time they deemed fitting. A release went out across the state around 8 a.m.
Wheeler had filed two cases against the state this past year in Federal Court. One, which was first filed in March, issued a complaint against the Massachusetts Department of Public Safety; it was dismissed July 13. Another case, which was against the Commonwealth and TD Bank in May, had its last court filing on the day of the incident, July 26. In the cases, Wheeler claims, in part, that the state, and at times specifically Gov. Charlie Baker, have recorded and spied on him in his home.