Man arrested after standoff

A rural man is in custody  after a two-hour standoff with the Custer County Sheriff’s Department the night of Nov. 12.

Michael Michaud, 58, was arrested after a call initially came into Custer County Dispatch of a man who was driving around shooting a gun out of his vehicle. Oddly enough, Custer County Sheriff Rick Wheeler and much of the area law enforcement were gathered for a sheriff’s department appreciation dinner when the call came in. Wheeler had just finished a talk about all the unique calls the department has received in his six and a half years as sheriff when dispatch called to apprise him of the situation.

“I had no sooner gotten that out of my mouth when  I got the call,” he said.

Wheeler was able to make contact with the man on the phone. By that time, Michaud had barricaded himself in his trailer house, located about three miles down Sidney Park Road south of Custer.

“He was distraught,” Wheeler said. “He had things going on with his life that he wasn’t handling very well.”

Michaud did shoot rounds through the wall of his trailer, although Wheeler said it was unclear whether Michaud was shooting at authorities on the scene. 

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