QUINCY, ILL. -- The subject of an 18-hour standoff with police at 1718 Center Granview is in custody.
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Original Story: Tuesday, February 19 at 10:45 a.m.
According to Quincy Police Chief Rob Copley, the subject, Donald "Rick" Pruett, is still talking with police and trained negotiators.
As of 8 a.m. authorities had switched negotiators and said the goal is to keep talking to the subject and keep him awake in the hopes of bringing the standoff to a close quickly and safely.
Investigators are confident that the man has a firearm inside the home, however they are not sure what kind.
Police say time is on their side and they intend right now to wait the suspect out.
People from the Quincy school district's transportation office were out in the neighborhood at 6:30 this morning, walking kids to temporary bus stops. Buses couldn't get to the back of the neighborhood.
Shane Barnes with the Quincy bus barn says that six buses were affected this morning from Quincy High School, Quincy Junior High, Baldwin Intermediate, Monroe Elementary, Early Childhood, and special education buses. The school district doesn't have a plan in place for this afternoon as of yet.
According to a press release issued by Sgt. Dan Duhamel of the Quincy Police Department, at approximately 2:30 on Monday, two detectives from the Quincy Police Department went to the residence to interview 52-year-old Rick Pruett on an aggravated criminal sexual abuse allegation concerning a minor child as a victim.
Chief Rob Copley said when detectives arrived at the subject's house, Pruett let the detectives in and then barricaded himself in a bedroom of the residence.
Pruett then made threats towards the detectives indicating that he was armed with a firearm. One of the detectives, who is also a trained hostage negotiator, began negotiating with him in an attempt to get him to surrender.
Officers quickly evacuated the surrounding homes. They say Pruett lives by himself.
KHQA spoke with neighbor Garrett Scott who wasn't able to go home for hours. "He was like another father figure to me," Scott said. "He was there whenever I needed him. We'd go on boat rides and fishing trips just like any other father would do. I'm just shocked."
The Quincy Police Department's Emergency Response Team (ERT) is present.
The Adams County State Attorney's Office charged Pruett in August 2002 with two counts of aggravated sexual abuse with a victim younger than 13 and a single count of sexual exploitation of a child. Those charges were dropped in November of that same year. Click here for the complete story.
The reason those charges were dropped were not immediately made available.
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