By Blake Schmidt
Tico Times Staff | bschmidt@ticotimes.net

Costa Rican authorities nabbed a wily U.S. fugitive yesterday. Then they nabbed him again.

Nicholas Himmelsbach is accused in the United States of crimes including attempted murder, assault with a lethal weapon, damaging property and shooting in public, according to a statement from the Public Security Ministry.

He fought off five Costa Rican cops who tried to detain him at a house in the western suburb of Rohrmoser yesterday morning. They had to call for back-up before they were able to arrest him.

Himmelsbach was then taken to an immigrantion shelter in nearby Hatillo, which he escaped from an hour after arriving. Authorities tracked him down and arrested him again. He is now in a high-security detention center and faces deportation to the United States, according to a statement from the international policy agency Interpol.

“They have really strong security measures because he's really strong and really violent. All of us were beat up,” the statement said.

Himmelsbach, 26, fled the United States, where he is accused of conspiring to kill his ex-girlfriend while he was in jail in 2005 and of being involved in a drive-by shooting of an occupied home with a high-powered rifle in the state of New Mexico.

The Decorah Newspapers -- a news organization in Decorah, Iowa, where Himmelsbach served jail time after being accused of shooting into an occupied dwelling, conspiracy and shooting from a motor vehicle -- reported that he posted a fraction of his bond and fled the country in March.

Costa Rican authorities have found no records of Himmelsbach entering the country and believe he did so illegally, according to the Public Security Ministry statement.

Patrick Cunningham, a former employee at the travel agency Costa Rican Vacations in Rohrmoser, said he worked with Himmelsbach before the fugitive was fired in July after working for the company a few months.

Cunningham described Himmelsbach as “pretty stocky” and added that he seemed to have mood swings.

“His moods would turn on a dime,” Cunningham added in a phone interview from the United States.

The Tico Times tried to contact Costa Rican Vacations yesterday but received no response by press time.