On June 8 at 11:58 p.m., multiple residents from the Wilmington Avenue and Cooperstown Avenue area began calling police about a man who was pounding on their doors. A resident flagged down a responding officer in the 3300 block of Arlington Avenue regarding a man he didn’t know, later identified as Hans Ian Kengle, age 38, being in his backyard on the roof. The officer located Kengle and told him to stop, but Kengle jumped off the side of the roof and fled on foot. He was subsequently located on the rooftop of a home in the 3300 block of Cooperstown Avenue and refused to come down.
Two K9 units and the Drone Team responded along with an officer who is also a Crisis Negotiation Team member. The entire call lasted about five hours but CNT was able to negotiate a peaceful descent and Kengle was taken into custody and lodged at Lane County Jail on two counts of Criminal Trespass in the Second Degree, Disorderly Conduct, and Interfering with Police. Case 21-08663
The EPD Crisis Negotiations Team is a highly skilled and specially-trained team that is available to address critical, crisis calls such as barricaded subjects, armed suicidal subjects, hostage situations, and high-risk search warrants. Their mission is to establish communications with people who are in volatile crisis situations and create rapport that will help lead the individual to a peaceful resolution. In critical incidents, including those involving armed barricaded subjects, CNT works closely with SWAT to resolve the situation without injury to officers or community. However, more commonly CNT responds to assist patrol in de-escalating situations involving individuals in severe mental or emotional crisis.
