A felony arrest warrant has been issued for Debra Sue Faucher of Willow Creek for the alleged standoff with police inside Walmart on Monday night.
Faucher, 57, of 265 Highwood Lane in Willow Creek, was charged Wednesday by Foster Township Police with criminal trespassing, a third-degree felony; recklessly endangering another person, a second-degree misdemeanor; and disorderly conduct, a third-degree misdemeanor.
The criminal complaint is filed at Magisterial District Judge Rich Luther’s office. Luther signed the warrant for Faucher’s arrest Wednesday.
According to court records, at 7:48 p.m., Foster Township Police were called to Walmart for a report of a white female who entered the store through the front doors and made her way to the back employee stock area of the store.
When police arrived, they were met by Walmart staff at the front of the grocery side of the store. Police were told that Faucher had startled the staff when she went into the stockroom, and told them “she was being followed and advised them to call 911,” court records read. The employee said Faucher appeared to be holding a firearm in her hand at the time of contact.
The officers reviewed the security footage and saw her in the stock area with a gun in her hand. They called for additional police assistance while Walmart personnel began evacuating the store, court records read.
Officers began searching the back stock areas of the store, and were advised by an employee that a back security door had been opened on the north side of the store. When the officer went to the doorway, he saw Faucher on the ground under a “large mechanical freezer,” identified himself as a police officer and told her to show her hands, court records read.
At this time, he saw the gun in her right hand, announced that he was a police officer and told her to drop her weapon. She did not. Officers from Bradford City, Bradford Township and University of Pittsburgh at Bradford Campus police arrived, surrounded the back room and requested multiple times that she drop the weapon, according to court records.
“After several minutes of negotiating … officers and family of the defendant were able to convince the defendant to place the firearm on the ground out of reach,” the affidavit of probable cause read.
Faucher was then taken into custody by Foster Township Police. At 8:18 p.m., Faucher was taken by Bradford City Ambulance to Bradford Regional Medical Center, where she was met by a mental health delegate before being admitted to the psychiatric unit at the hospital for “mental issues at the time of the event,” the criminal complaint read.
There were no injuries during the incident.
As of late Wednesday, she had not been arrested or arraigned.
