by: Marilyn Mayo
August 09, 2016
A SWAT team with the Gladstone Police Department in Northwestern Oregon rescued a woman being held hostage by a barricaded white supremacist following a shootout with police.
The incident began on August 8, 2016, when Jeffrey Carl Giddings, a convicted felon and career criminal, fled on a bicycle from an officer who was attempting to stop him for a traffic violation.
A short time later, Giddings allegedly opened fire on a police sergeant who had located him in the parking lot of a Subway restaurant. The sergeant was struck in his ballistic vest and is reportedly in excellent condition.
Giddings then took a woman hostage and barricaded himself in the Subway. A responding SWAT team tried to negotiate with Giddings, but he made demands and refused to give up. Fearing for the hostage’s safety, the SWAT team shot Giddings and saved the woman. Giddings suffered a non-life threatening injury and was taken to the hospital.
Giddings’ face and body are covered in tattoos. Many of them are symbols used by white supremacists including the words “Aryan Pride”, a Insane Peckerwood Syndicate, a white supremacist prison gang with members in Oregon and Washington.
This is the second shootout in the United States between police and domestic extremists this month, and the ninth so far this year.