No charges in wake of five-hour standoff in Bartlett

No charges have been filed against a 25-year-old Naperville man whose “bizarre” statements prompted a nearly five-hour standoff at a pasta manufacturing plant in Bartlett.

Police said the unidentified man remains in police custody but will be taken to a hospital for a mental health evaluation.

Bartlett police Cmdr. Michael McGuigan said employees at Rana Meal Solutions LLC, 550 S. Spitzer Road, called police at about 6:40 a.m. to report that the man, a contracted security guard at the facility, claimed the building would blow up.

Bomb-sniffing dogs, however, have found no evidence of explosive materials. Evidence technicians were canvassing the 100,000-square-foot facility Thursday afternoon, officials said.

Bartlett police, assisted by a Northern Illinois Police Alarm System special response team, evacuated the building, established a large perimeter around the plant and began trying to make contact with the man.

The standoff ended when the man was peacefully taken into custody by a SWAT team that had gone into the plant searching for him. The man was taken directly to the police station where he was questioned by Bartlett detectives Thursday afternoon, authorities said.

The man took no hostages, authorities said, and no injuries were reported. One member of the Northern Illinois Police Alarm System team was briefly hospitalized for a heat-related illness, police said.

An initial statement from police said the 25-year-old claimed he had an explosive device inside the business, but McGuigan said the man never threatened to blow up the building or say that he had a bomb.

“(The man's statements) would have been more in the bizarre nature,” McGuigan said.

Because Rana uses ammonia in the production process, officials said crews worked to turn off gas to the facility before a NIPAS team could go into the building.

Rana, the largest producer of fresh pasta in Europe, opened its first American plant in Bartlett in 2011. The building, purchased with the help of local and state incentives, accommodates manufacturing lines for pasta and areas for fillings and ingredients, according to reports at the time.

Police also requested that Elgin Area School District U-46 officials keep students and faculty inside nearby Nature Ridge and Liberty elementary schools. Staff and visitors, though, could come and go.

• Staff writer Lee Filas contributed to this story