Standoff in patrol auto ends after suspect shoots himself

A 4-hour standoff with an armed man in the back of a sheriff’s deputy’s patrol vehicle in Colorado ended when the man fatally shot himself, sheriff’s investigators said.

That’s when the suspect was able to maneuver his cuffed hands from behind his back to the front of his body, at which point the deputy saw him holding a gun to his head and threatening to commit suicide, Kirby said.

The 33-year-old man was in the back of the auto with a gun from about 2:45 to 7:30 p.m., shutting down a stretch of Powers and eastbound Fountain Boulevard.

He later shot himself after an hours-long standoff. As the deputy was driving with him in the backseat, she noticed the suspect had a gun pointed at his head, according to police.

Negotiators tried to talk the suspect into surrendering and two SWAT teams were called to the scene.

A crisis negotiator communicated through a Spanish-speaking translator with the man, on a mobile phone delivered to him by a robot. Eventually, the man took his own life.

“You’re about to do something that you can’t take back”, the officer said.

“It is with great sadness we report the suicidal suspect who was transported to the hospital via AMR with a self inflicted gunshot has succumbed to his wounds”, El Paso County Sheriff’s Department said on its Facebook page.

‘This is not something that God would ever want for you.’. The Sheriff’s Office plans to conduct an investigation when the situation has been resolved.

The unnamed man was arrested on Tuesday afternoon in Colorado Springs for alleged possession of methamphetamine. The man, understood to have been a father, died in hospital.