(From the U. S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri)A Springfield, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for shooting at a Greene County Sheriff’s Department deputy when officers arrested him for escaping from a local halfway house.
Richard Dale Friederich, 41, was sentenced by U.S. Chief District Judge Beth Phillips to 13 years and 10 months in federal prison without parole.
On Oct. 20, 2022, Friederich pleaded guilty to one count of assaulting a federal law enforcement officer with a dangerous or deadly weapon and one count of discharging a firearm during a crime of violence. Friederich admitted that he fired a Kel-Tec 9mm semi-automatic pistol at a Greene County sheriff’s deputy who was assisting the U.S. Marshals Service to arrest him after he absconded from Alpha House, a halfway house in Springfield.
On Aug. 20, 2022, law enforcement officers arrived at a Springfield residence searching for Friederich, who had an active federal warrant out for his arrest. Friederich had been convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm and was released to Alpha House following his incarceration in April 2020. Less than four months later, he escaped from Alpha House.
When a woman opened the door and informed officers that Friederich was in the house, an officer yelled to Friederich to come out of the bedroom. Instead, Friederich kicked the bedroom door closed and yelled for the officers to get away from the door. Officers attempted to persuade Friederich to come out of the bedroom. Friederich used his cell phone to call the woman who had opened the door to the officers; he told her that once she and her children were out of the house, he intended to “shoot it out” with law enforcement.
About an hour later, the Greene County Sheriff’s Department SWAT Team arrived and shot gas into the bedroom. When that was unsuccessful, a noise flash diversionary device was deployed and officers kicked open the bedroom door. A deputy sheriff stepped into the room to deploy his police dog but saw Friederich crouched down on the bed, pointing the handgun directly at him. Friederich fired two shots at the deputy sheriff.
SWAT shot additional gas into the room, but Friederich still refused to leave. Officers deployed a robot into the room and could see that Friederich had retreated to a closet in the corner of the bedroom. An hour later, Friederich came out of the closet and was arrested. Officers recovered the loaded Kel-Tec pistol as well as a loaded Smith & Wesson 9mm semi-automatic pistol from the bedroom closet.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica R. Eatmon. It was investigated by the U.S. Marshals Service and the Greene County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department.
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