CUSTER, S.D. — Law enforcement say two Rapid City men are under arrest and in custody at the Pennington County Jail after an hours-long standoff in the Argyle area of Custer County.
Charges are pending against 50-year-old Charles Martin Chamley and 47-year-old Gabriel Terrance Garcia.
Law enforcement officials say both men have extensive criminal records in Pennington and Meade Counties.
According to the Custer County Sheriff’s Office, the incident began at about 7:00 a.m. Saturday when citizens reported two men in a pickup were burglarizing storage units south of Custer. The original witnesses followed the suspect vehicle but lost sight of it south of Pringle.
Deputies located the unoccupied vehicle, a Ford F250, crashed in the woods in the Argyle area. Custer County Search and Rescue launched a drone to assist and located the men in an unoccupied horse barn nearby.
Law enforcement believed the men were armed because they had found empty gun cases from firearms believed to have been stolen from a storage unit. Custer County Sheriff Marty Mechaley called several times for the men to come out of the barn.
After hours without a response, Sheriff Mechaley called for mutual aid from the Pennington County/Rapid City Special Response team
The men surrendered shortly after the SRT arrived with its armored Bearcat Vehicle and were turned over to the Custer County Sheriff’s Office.
