A man who fired twice at a Greene County sheriff's deputy during a police stand-off in Springfield was sentenced in federal court to 13 years and 10 months in prison.
U.S. Chief District Judge Beth Phillips sentenced Richard Dale Friederich, 41, of Springfield on Aug. 1.
Friederich reportedly escaped from a Springfield halfway house on Aug. 20, 2022. Law enforcement agents went to a Springfield residence the same day, searching for him.
Friederich had been sent to the halfway house in the first place because he had been convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm. First he was in prison, then he was in the halfway house for less than three months.
In October 2022, he 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 semi-automatic pistol at a Greene County sheriff’s deputy who was assisting the U.S. Marshals Service.
During the August stand-off, when a woman opened the door and informed officers Friederich was in the house, an officer yelled to Friederich to come out of a bedroom, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Missouri.
Instead, Friederich kicked the bedroom door closed and yelled for the officers to get away from the door, according to the press release.
Officers attempted to persuade Friederich to come out of the bedroom. Instead, Friederich used his cell phone to call the woman who had opened the door and told her that once she and her children were out of the house, he intended to “shoot it out” with law enforcement, according to the press release.
Greene County SWAT team arrives
About an hour later, the Greene County SWAT Team arrived and shot tear gas into the bedroom. When that was unsuccessful, a noise/flash device was used and law enforcement officers kicked open the bedroom door.
A Greene County deputy sheriff entered the room with a police dog, but saw Friederich crouched on the bed, pointing the handgun directly at him. Friederich fired two shots at the deputy sheriff. The deputy retreated.
Members of the SWAT team shot additional gas into the room, but Friederich still refused to leave.
Officers sent a robot in and could see Friederich was in a closet. An hour later, Friederich came out and was arrested.
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 Sheriff’s Office.
