From: lurker@ottoman.net
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 1997 16:42:51 +0800
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Message-ID: <199710310930.LAA11089@ankara.duzen.com.tr>
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October 30, 1997
Web posted at: 9:34 p.m. EST (0234 GMT) 

ROBY, Illinois (CNN) -- Shirley A. Allen, a mentally disturbed woman
who held police off for 39 days with a shotgun and entertained herself
by listening to public radio, was captured Thursday and taken to a
hospital. 

"The good news is she's safe," said Terrance Gainer, Illinois state
police director. "The great news is nobody got seriously hurt or killed."

The standoff ended when Allen ventured out on the deck behind her
home to throw away food and water left for her by the police. On her
third trip, she stooped to cut a wire attached to a pail in which a police
camera was hidden. 

A trooper fired six rubber bullets at her, striking her two or three times
and knocking her to the deck, where she was captured. 

Gainer said that Allen, who wore a full camouflage suit padded
with a pillow and magazines, was examined at a hospital and
reported to be in good condition  was feisty enough after the
ordeal to scold police for their tactics during the standoff. 

Gainer said she is still in custody and will undergo a psychiatric
examination. 

"I think she's probably as relieved right now as we are that this
is over," said Allen's brother, Byron Dugger, who talked with her
after she was captured. 

Gainer said Allen asked Dugger to open his mouth to prove he
wasn't someone wearing a mask that looked like him. 

'They have zapped my head with radar' 

The standoff in this small central Illinois town began
September 22 when Allen, 51, brandished a shotgun
as her brother and sheriff's deputies tried to
take her in for a court-ordered evaluation. 

Allen's relatives were concerned because she had
become increasingly depressed and paranoid
since her husband died of pancreatic cancer in 1989. More
recently, she had refused to see or talk to her brother or her
86-year-old mother. 

In a letter to her mother in May 1996, Allen wrote, "They have
zapped my head with radar. I have swelling and inflammation of
the brain." 

She did not say who "they" were, but when police offered her
water after she was captured, she said "the helicopters" told her
not to drink it. There were no helicopters in sight, but she finally
drank the water after troopers drank some to prove it wasn't
poisoned. 

She told them she hadn't eaten or had anything to drink in three
days. 

Allen also talked to her daughter, Kate Waddell, after she was
captured. "But she wasn't quite sure it was Mrs. Waddell,"
Gainer said. 

Allen's case attracted the sympathy of many neighbors and
became a rallying point for some who called it "Roby Ridge,"
likening it to shootouts at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and Waco, Texas,
as an example of overzealous law enforcement. 

Standoff cost taxpayers about $1 million 

Others questioned the expense of the standoff.
Gainer tackled that one  head-on at a news conference Thursday, saying
it was about $15,000 a day.   He estimated the total cost
of the operation at $750,000 to $1 million. 

Obviously relieved that Allen was taken alive, an
unapologetic Gainer said,  "But I don't think Mrs.
Shirley Allen is worth a cent less than that." 

Police tried to get Allen out of her green frame
farmhouse with tear gas, pepper spray and music. They
also tried to coax her out with a visit from her favorite
stepdaughter. This week, they began giving her food
and restored her power, which had been shut off
earlier, in a goodwill gesture they hoped would calm
her down. 

Allen had fought off tear gas by smearing her face with
petroleum jelly and withstood beanbag bullets by wearing
heavy layers of clothing. 

She apparently slept in a sleeping bag in the living room -- the room
where her husband died -- and had two transistor radios with earplugs.
Gainer said the radios were tuned to a local public radio station. 

Protesters gathered daily to support her and criticized the police. 

'Mrs. Allen is where she needs to be' 

"The good feeling is it's over for her. The bad feeling
is how she's going to be trapped after this is over
with," said John Powers, a neighbor and one of the
protesters. "We don't know if they'll treat her as a
person who is sane or as a person who tried to shoot
their dog." 

Although Allen fired at state troopers and wounded a
police dog sent into her home Sunday, "it would serve
no useful purpose to charge her," Gainer said. "Given
what we have known from Day 1, Mrs. Allen is where
she needs to be right now." 

Reporter Lisa Price and The Associated Press
contributed to this report.