Arrest Ends Standoff Spokane Bank Robbery Suspect Keeps Police At Bay For Three Hours

A Spokane man suspected in a bank robbery earlier this week was arrested Thursday after a three-hour standoff with police on the South Hill.

Daniel J. Ostin, 38, surrendered to police about 6 p.m. He walked out of a home at 1506 E. 38th as SWAT team members surrounded him.

Ostin, who just completed prison time for bank robbery, was handcuffed, placed in a patrol car and taken to the Spokane County Jail. He was sought in connection with a bank robbery Tuesday at the U.S. Bank at Third and Stevens.

“He more or less said he’d done wrong and that he was mentally insane,” said Rick Freese, Ostin’s cousin, who also lives in Spokane. “He’d been up for four days.”

Ostin agreed to come out of the house if he could speak in person with Freese and a hostage negotiator.

“It was the promise of speaking to his cousin that brought him out,” Police Chief Terry Mangan said.

Freese said Ostin got out of prison last Friday, and had been drinking ever since.

“He’s had his problems in the last four years,” said Freese, who has had little contact with Ostin.

Thursday’s trouble began when Ostin arrived at the home of Adrienne Freese, the mother of Rick Freese.

She was trimming bushes in her backyard when she saw Ostin about 3 p.m. At first, she didn’t recognize the nephew she hadn’t seen in years.

“He said, ‘You know who I am. I’m your nephew,”’ Adrienne Freese said.

Ostin, who appeared drunk, then demanded her car, she said.

Adrienne Freese told him: “‘Dream on!”’

Then, he ran into her house and locked himself inside. Adrienne Freese rushed to her front yard and asked a neighbor to call police.

She remained at the home of neighbor Nancy Paladin, where police negotiated with Ostin by phone.

Police were confident by 4:15 p.m. that Ostin didn’t have a gun, allowing SWAT members to move more freely without fear of endangering neighbors, Mangan said.

Ostin did have knives inside the home and had talked about suicide. He told negotiators he didn’t want to come out because he feared returning to prison.

After the encounter with her nephew, 70-year-old Adrienne Freese was shaken.

“I thought I was going to have a heart attack,” she said. “I’m strong and everything, but some other people could have died.”

Her 33 years at the home on East 38th were quiet, she said, except for the events of Thursday afternoon. “Nothing ever happened.”

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