UPDATE: Suspect in Rehoboth standoff held pending hearing

By News Staff

news@abc6.com

The man arrested after an hours-long standoff with Rehoboth Police has been held pending a competency hearing requested by his lawyer in court Friday. 

Police say 38-year-old Benjamin Kimball was the disgruntled customer who walked into Cumberland Farms on Route 44 Thursday morning and threatened to blow it up.

He then allegedly threatened he had a gun and a bomb, and pulled a gas hose off the pump and tried to light it.

Witnesses tell ABC6 the suspect pulled in to the store around 6:30 a.m. driving a van. He parked his vehicle at a pump and began waving a gun.

Police say Kimball had lengthy conversations with crisis negotiators, but eventually he was taken down by a K9 and had bites on his leg and back. He was taken to Morton Hospital for evaluation.

A bomb-sniffing dog was sent to check Kimball’s car.

Police say the standoff started at 6 a.m. and evacuated nearby businesses and called in the regional SWAT team.

Liz White, a spokesperson for Cumberland Farms, tells ABC6 that the suspect threatened violence against a worker at the Cumberland Farms store on Winthrop Street in Rehoboth.

The store was open for business, but all employees and customers were safely evacuated from the premise, and all gas pumps were shut off. 

 As of approximately 2:30pm, the Rehoboth store was reopened to the public. 

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