Leader Staff
A preliminary hearing that had been scheduled for Tuesday in the case of a Gillett man charged in connection with a standoff in Wittenberg last month was delayed while he undergoes a competency evaluation.
Travis W. Keiler, 28, was arrested April 22 after a two-hour standoff with sheriff’s deputies in Wittenberg. He has been charged with a felony count of taking hostages while using a dangerous weapon.
He is now scheduled for a competency review in Shawano-Menominee County Circuit Court on June 2.
Keiler is accused of going armed into the Wittenberg Shell station and McDonald’s, 413 N. Genesee St., where he said he “wanted to shoot it out with the police,” according to the criminal complaint.
Keiler let everyone out of the building except for a lone McDonald’s employee, whom he kept as a hostage for about an hour.
Keiler told a hostage negotiator he had quit his job in De Pere and had been driving around before ending up at the Wittenberg Shell station.
The negotiator convinced Keiler to release his hostage as a sign of good faith after about an hour. Keiler surrendered peacefully an hour after that.
Keiler could face a maximum 40 years in prison and $100,000 fine if found guilty. He also faces a felony count of failing to comply with an officer’s attempt to take him into custody, which carries a maximum 3 1/2 year sentence and $10,000 fine, as well as misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct and carrying a concealed weapon.