By Sara Pauff
The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer
MUSCOGEE COUNTY, Ga. — After a four-hour standoff, Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office deputies subdued a Harris County man by shooting him with rubber pellets and arrested him early Saturday morning for allegedly manufacturing and planting pipe bombs at an apartment complex from which he had recently been evicted.
According to a statement from the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office, Raymond Joseph Geoffrion, 56, was arrested and charged with two counts of aggravated assault on an officer, possession of an explosive device with an intent to kill or injure, possession of an explosive device, possession of an explosive device by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
The sheriff’s office began the investigation late Friday afternoon after the Harris County Sheriff’s Office requested the Muscogee County bomb squad respond to an incident on Fortune Road in Hamilton regarding three suspected improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.
Three pipe bombs were recovered and detonated safely by the Muscogee County bomb squad’s bomb technician.
Geoffrion, who had been evicted from his residence at Fortune Road seven days earlier, was identified as a suspect and located at Sandpiper Apartments at 4443 Cusseta Road, apartment A-7.
At approximately 11:30 p.m. Friday, Muscogee County deputies went to the apartments to arrest Geoffrion on outstanding warrants held in both Muscogee and Harris County.
According to the sheriff’s office, Geoffrion refused to open the door to his apartment. Sheriff Ralph Johnson said deputies looked through the window of the apartment and saw “edge weapons, firearms and three or four long guns.”
Deputies negotiated with Geoffrion for four hours. When he would not surrender, tactical personnel from the sheriff’s office forcibly entered the apartment.
Geoffrion presented another IED and threatened to detonate it, and tactical personnel tried to subdue him with a Taser. When that failed, they shot him with a 12-gauge shotgun containing rubber pellets, Johnson said.
Deputies seized additional bomb-making materials and firearms from the residence.
The investigation is ongoing and being handled jointly by the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Geoffrion was transported to The Medical Center in Columbus and later transferred to Atlanta Medical where he is listed in stable condition in the intensive care unit. When he is released from the hospital, he will be transported back to Muscogee County, Johnson said.
Copyright 2007 McClatchy-Tribune Business News