What was supposed to happen today
Behlen was due in court at 3 p.m. today for a detention hearing on federal robbery and firearm charges filed last week.
Prosecutors asked a magistrate judge in Oklahoma City on Monday to keep the 50-year-old Edmond in jail pending trial. They contend he is a flight risk and a danger to the community.
Behlen faces up to life in prison if he is convicted.
Background on the case
According to Edmond police:
Sometime around 11 a.m. on Sept. 18, a man entered an Edmond pharmacy and bumped into a customer waiting for a prescription.
The man started to leave, but then pulled a gun and walked around the pharmacy counter, telling everyone to remain calm and “give him oxycodone products.”
After getting them, the man demanded more narcotics. He left the store, then returned and told everyone in the store to got into a back room. The man tried to lock the door, but couldn’t.
He left again — then came back, sat in an office chair, put his gun on the floor and took 10 or 12 pills. He picked the gun up, threatened the people in the office and left.
A short time later, a white sport utility vehicle was involved in a traffic accident. The driver refused to stop and drove to a home at 2705 Trail Creek Road.
The man did not comply with officers trying to get him out of the SUV. An officer zapped the man with a Taser device, taking him into custody. The man was later identified by police as Behlen.
He was taken to Edmond Regional Medical Center for observation and stayed overnight.
Behlen is a partner in the law firm of Behlen, Bentwood & Luther in Oklahoma City.
More than 1,600 pills and a .22 caliber handgun were found on the front seat of Behlen’s white SUV, police said in a court document.
Hospital room barricaded
4:03 p.m.
Emergency personnel are all around OU Medical Center, including campus police, Oklahoma County deputies and Oklahoma City firefighters.
They can’t get to Behlen, reports staff writer Augie Frost, because he has barricaded his hospital room.
Workers said Behlen seemed suicidal
Sept. 18, people who worked with Behlen told an Oklahoma City police officer that Behlen was a drug addict who may be trying to commit “suicide by cop,” according to a federal court document filed by Edmond police.
“He had threatened suicide before leaving his office,” the document says.
Behlen may be bleeding
Something is trickling down Behlen’s neck, staff photographer Steve Gooch reports.
It may be blood.
Mark Myers, spokesman for the Oklahoma County sheriff, tells The Oklahoman that Behlen stabbed himself in the neck with a pencil earlier today.
That wound is what sent him to the hospital. He is on a ledge outside OU Medical Center’s Presbyterian Tower, at least five stories above the ground, reports staff writer Augie Frost.
Ledge drama continues
3:50 p.m.
Behlen has nearly fallen from the ledge more than once, Augie Frost reports.
From the ground, the ledge appears to be narrow, perhaps a foot deep, Frost says.
Behlen is on the south side of the Presbyterian Tower, hidden from view most of the time, Frost says. The attorney becomes visible when he moves along the ledge, “shimmying across” with his belly against the wall.
He has tried to open the window to another room, without success.
More details
3:35 p.m.
Staff writer Augie Frost reports that Behlen is still on the ledge, apparently wearing nothing but a hospital gown.
Frost says Behlen is walking back and forth on the ledge, has re-entered his room a few times and has knocked on at least one neighboring window.
He is talking on a telephone and has something, possibly a cigarette, in his mouth.
Attorney on hospital ledge
An Edmond attorney accused of robbing a pharmacy is on a ledge outside the Presbyterian Tower of OU Medical Center, an official said. His intentions are not known.
Mark Myers, spokesman for the Oklahoma County sheriff’s office, said Robert Behlen, 50, apparently stabbed himself with a pencil this morning and was taken to OU Medical Center for treatment.
He is now on the ledge at least five stories above the ground.
Behlen was arrested Sept. 18. He is accused of robbing the Barrett Drug Center in Edmond of a variety of prescription painkillers. — Augie Frost
