Authorities in Virginia apprehended a couple on Thursday, charging them with the assault and neglect of their 8-month-old child. The situation escalated when the father barricaded himself inside a residence, prompting a SWAT team to forcibly enter by breaking through the front door and a wall to arrest him.
Nikki Angelina Walker, 32, was arrested quickly and without incident, WDBJ reported, but Chase Thomas Fielder, 32, could not immediately be located.
Around 8 p.m., officers from the Henry County Sheriff’s Office were informed of Fielder’s presence at a home in Collinsville. Upon their arrival, he quickly shut the door and started using whatever he could within the house to barricade himself.
In response, deputies activated the SWAT team as they attempted, without success, to persuade Fielder to surrender. The SWAT team then used “chemical munitions” within the house, but Fielder remained noncompliant.
The sheriff’s office said Fielder used beds, mattresses, couches, a washing machine, and dryer to block the front and back doors of the home before the SWAT team used an armored vehicle to breach the home. When Fielder continued to resist arrest, more “chemical munitions” were deployed before he was finally taken into custody.
In addition to the child abuse charges, Fielder was also charged with obstruction of justice.
The sheriff’s office did not provide any details about the child abuse charges or the child’s condition or current location, but Sheriff Wayne Davis released a statement decrying “the abuse of an innocent child [as] one of hte most disturbing and unacceptable crimes we face.”
Walker is being held on a $4,000 bond, while Fielder was being held without bond.
