Omaha man who barricaded himself in excavator gets 8 years for federal firearm offense

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (WOWT) - An Omaha man who barricaded himself in an excavator in Council Bluffs about two years ago was sentenced Tuesday in a federal court in Iowa for a firearm offense.

Ryan Daniel Linehan, 42, of Omaha, was sentenced to 100 months — a little more than eight years — in federal prison after pleading guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm. He will also be required to serve three years of supervised release following the completion of his sentence, according to the release from the office of U.S. Attorney Richard Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa.

The sentence stems from an incident on Feb. 5, 2021, when Linehan was operating an excavator as law enforcement officers approached him to arrest him on an outstanding warrant. He then barricaded himself in the excavator for nine hours while in possession of a loaded Ruger handgun; officers also found a loaded Hi-Point handgun in his truck.

The U.S. Marshal Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives assisted in the Council Bluffs Police Department’s investigation of this case, which was part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a U.S. Department of Justice initiative.