Tekamah man arrested after 7-hour standoff

TEKAMAH - An 18-year-old Tekamah man is in custody following a seven-hour standoff with law enforcement officers, the Nebraska State Patrol reported.

Jerrard Nelsen has been charged with making terroristic threats, use of a firearm to commit a felony and unlawful discharge of a firearm. He is being held in the Burt County Jail.

He was arrested after members of the State Patrol’s Troop B SWAT team entered Nelsen’s apartment early this morning after the Omaha Police Department’s robot was used.

At about 10 p.m. Tuesday, the Tekamah Police Department received a call of an armed individual barricaded in 1621 M St. No. 5 in Tekamah.

The State Patrol said suspect was intoxicated and armed with a 12 gauge shotgun. Nelsen had made threats to family members and law enforcement and had discharged the shotgun into the floor of his bedroom, sending rounds through the floor into the living quarters of an occupied apartment below.

The Tekamah Police Department requested the assistance of the State Patrol’s SWAT team. The apartment building was evacuated and the State Patrol, along with the Tekamah, Oakland and Lyons police departments and the Burt County Sheriff’s Office, established a perimeter.

SWAT team hostage negotiators made several attempts to contact Nelsen but were unable to establish contact with him.

After that, the OPD robot was deployed into the apartment building along with SWAT team members.

The suspect was located by the robot in a rear bedroom of the third floor apartment. Two long rifles were observed to be adjacent to the bed. At that time the suspect ignored commands to surrender at the front door of the apartment.

No one was injured in the standoff.