‘Armed and dangerous’ fugitive pinned in to prevent escape, arrested at Bend’s Cascade Village Shopping Center

(Update: DCSO releases name, more details of arrest)

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – An “armed and dangerous” fugitive from the Salem area, wanted on a nationwide warrant for robbery, was tracked Friday to the Bend area and found at the Cascade Village Shopping Center, where law enforcement vehicles were damaged as they pinned him in and prevented his escape.

Federal marshals contacted the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office around 2:30 p.m. about a wanted man who they said was likely in the Bend area, Sergeant Josh Spano said.

Ryan R. Gossett, 38, of Turner, had a nationwide extradition warrant for three counts of first-degree robbery out of the Salem/Marion County area “and was last known to be armed,’ Spano said in a news release Saturday.

DCSO patrol deputies, detectives and members of the Central Oregon Drug Enforcement (CODE) Team began a surveillance operation, quickly finding Gossett and a female associate in the area of the shopping center on Bend's north end, Spano said.

“Further information was developed that Gossett was known to attempt to escape, elude and use/possess firearms,” Spano said. “He was considered armed and dangerous.”

As a large police presence gathered at the scene to conduct surveillance, the sergeant said Gossett’s female associate was seen circling the shopping center several times in a vehicle related to them both, “in what appeared to be counter-surveillance,”

Around 4:40 p.m., Gossett was seen leaving a store, at which point the woman quickly switched seats so he could drive, Spano said.

Deputies, including a K-9 team, and detectives “conducted a pre-planned maneuver to pin (immediately make the suspect vehicle immobile) the suspect vehicle,” the sergeant said. “This caused minor damage to law enforcement vehicles.”

Gossett and the female associate, whose name was not released, were taken into custody without further incident, Spano said. There were no injuries reported.

Gossett “was compliant when taken into custody” Spano said. He was found to be armed with a concealed handgun and also possessed “a criminal quantity of suspected fentanyl,” Spano said.

Gossett was booked into the county jail on three out-of-county warrants for first-degree robbery and new charges of third-degree assault, fleeing or attempting to elude police, first-degree criminal mischief and drug possession. Jail records showed he was being held without bail Saturday pending arraignment on the local charges and transport on the warrants from Marion County.

“The female associate has been released at this time,” Spano added.  The investigation is continuing, he said, and further details will be released at a later date “if needed.”