WALDPORT – A 36-year-old Waldport man is being held without bail in the Lincoln County Jail after his arrest Friday night for second-degree attempted murder and nine other charges after five sheriff’s deputies had to break down the door of his bedroom to arrest him after a three-hour standoff.
A preliminary hearing for Erich M. Rennspies is scheduled Nov. 21 in Lincoln County circuit court.
Rennspies is charged with one count of second-degree attempted murder, three counts of strangulation during domestic violence, two counts of unlawful use of a weapon, menacing and recklessly endangering.
Deputies were called to Rennspies home on Southwest Adahi Avenue at 8:12 p.m. Friday after his wife called police from a neighbor’s house. According to a probable cause affidavit filed in circuit court, she said Rennspies had been drinking, was verbally abusive and grabbed her by the throat when she began recording him with her cell phone.
She fought him off, but was thrown on the couch and said he twice covered her face with a couch cushion and pillow and said he was “looking forward to killing his first female …”, according to the court document.
Rennspies wife managed to escape, ran to a neighbor’s house and called police.
Deputy Garrett Brawdy called for backup, and once Deputy Derek Etheridge arrived they pounded on the suspect’s door asking him to come out. He did not and didn’t respond to phone calls, text messages and announcements over the public address system on a patrol car, Brawdy said in his court statement.
Deputies got a search warrant at 11 p.m. and two sergeants and another deputy joined Brawdy and Etheridge and entered the house. Rennspies was in the bedroom but refused to come out, Brawdy said, so “the bedroom door had to be kicked in.” Brawdy said Rennspies continued refusing to cooperate and had to be “physically controlled” to get his hands behind his back, handcuffed and taken to jail.
According to the court document, the victim told deputies that she was afraid to get a restraining order against Rennspies for fear of losing her home and that he had “had taken away her privilege to drive a month ago, which caused her to have to quit her job.”