Basil Wicker

Indiana State Police Troopers arrested a rural Wolcottville man early this morning on multiple charges stemming from a follow-up on information which led them to a residence in Wolcottville to locate a wanted individual.

According to ISP Trooper Brian Kreger, he and Trooper Mike Carroll and his K-9 partner, Deezle, went to an apartment in the 200 block of North Main Street at approximately midnight to locate a man wanted on an arrest warrant. The tenant of the apartment allowed the officers to search for the man. During the search, Kreger found 33-year-old Basil L. Wicker hiding behind a bed in an upstairs bedroom.

Not knowing if this was the person they were looking for, Kreger ordered Wicker to come out from behind the bed. Wicker then allegedly reached into his right pant pocket and pulled out a knife, but eventually dropped it to the floor after numerous verbal commands given by Kreger. As Kreger and Carroll attempted to place handcuffs on Wicker’s wrists, Wicker allegedly became combative. Carroll addressed Wicker with pepper spray and was then able to be taken into custody.

After allegedly receiving incorrect identifying information from Wicker, Carroll was able to verify his true identity because of multiple previous dealings. It was determined that Wicker, who was not the original wanted person sought after, had an arrest warrant issued for him out of Noble County for resisting law enforcement.

Kreger said that Wicker, who also had less than three grams of methamphetamine in his right pants pocket, continued to resist their efforts to place him into a police car for transportation to the LaGrange County Jail. He was finally placed securely into a vehicle and taken to and incarcerated in the LaGrange County Jail on charges of possession of methamphetamine, resisting law enforcement, refusal to identify and will also be held for Noble County on their warrant.

As a result of their investigation, Kreger and Carroll obtained information that they provided to the Kendallville Police Department, which led to a residence with a meth lab and another wanted person.