Billings man arrested after a standoff that required SWAT response

Billings, Montana – Billings police said Tuesday that a man who had threatened them with numerous high-powered weapons was taken into custody during a standoff that took place on Sunday in the Billings Heights neighborhood.

Police say that 44-year-old Robert Janz may have been going through a mental health crisis that made him more anti-government and more sure that the government was coming to take his guns.

An officer from the Billings Police Department was sent to a residence on Solita Drive on Sunday morning after receiving reports that a man was seen holding a handgun while making his way around the neighborhood and demanding that residents come out of their houses.

When the police came, the guy, who was later identified as Janz, rushed inside his home and held his wife and three children hostage. He then threatened the police with a number of high-powered firearms, which Police Chief Rich St. John described as an arsenal.

According to St. John, he was in a position where he might have opened fire on the responding officers.

SWAT officers from the Billings Police Department entered the residence, struck the suspect with a shotgun loaded with non-lethal bean bags, and then took him into custody.

According to St. John, more than thirty weapons were confiscated from Janz’s residence.