St. Joseph County prosecutors on Tuesday filed criminal confinement and stalking charges against the man who held five people hostage earlier this week in a Mishawaka home.The man had been released from prison a year ago after serving 23 years from a prior case.
Prosecutors say SWAT officers responded to the home around 7 a.m. Sunday but 53-year-old Chad Bean had started holding the three adults and two children hostage the night before. His victims included Jamie Cress, who said she had met Bean on Facebook, but he became enraged when she tried to break up with him.
It was Bean’s sister who learned of the situation from their mother and called Mishawaka Police. She told them Bean “lost it” when Cress tried to break up. As the other victims came to the home Saturday night, he took their phones and wouldn’t let them leave. His sister told police that he’d said he wasn’t going back to prison and that officers would have to kill him.
As police surrounded the home Sunday morning, Bean grew more agitated. According to his Facebook profile, at 9:45 a.m., he posted, “Update on hostage situation in Mishawaka…Swat has arrived and is trying to flex its muscle … Not advised … They are dumb.”
But over about eight hours of negotiations, officers persuaded Bean to release everyone but Cress. When they became worried she was in danger they stormed the house, as Bean fired at officers from an upstairs window with an assault rifle. They finally entered the bedroom and rescued Cress from a closet, as two officers shot Bean. He remained hospitalized in critical condition Tuesday.
Prosecutors say Bean poses a threat to Cress and her family, and the community, and they have asked the judge to detain him until he has a bond hearing, because of a violent crime he was convicted of in 2001. In that case, he had kidnapped his six-month-old son from his estranged wife, and refused to give up the child when confronted by police.
Police then released a K-9 on Bean and he used the baby as a shield, causing the baby to be bitten. Police called the dog off and ultimately managed to pry the baby from Bean’s hands as he tried to strangle him.
