COLUMBUS – A man suspected of cutting the throat of a robbery victim, and who said he wanted to commit “suicide by cop” was shot to death by police who came to contact him at a home on the West Side late Tuesday night, police said.
UPDATE: This article has been edited to include the name of the suspect.
Michael Lee Morris, accused of holding up a couple earlier in the evening and cutting the throat of the man, threatened police with a combat knife as he ran out of the back of a house on Powell Avenue where authorities went to question him and was shot by a detective and an officer, according to police spokesman Sgt. Rich Weiner.
Morris, 53, died after being taken to Mount Carmel West Hospital, Weiner said.
The shooting was the culmination of events that began at approximately 8:03 p.m., when officers responding to a reported stabbing on Josephine found Mark Mercer suffering from a deep cut to his neck and a woman with a cut to her hand, Weiner said.
Mercer and the woman told police they had gone to meet Morris at the location and, at some point, Morris left and was later seen breaking the window of Mercer’s vehicle, Weiner said.
Weiner says Mercer confronted Morris and a struggle ensued during which Mercer pulled a knife, cut Mercer’s throat and took his car keys. When the woman stepped in, she received a small cut to her hand. Mercer ran away.
Mercer was treated for the cut to his neck at Mount Carmel West and was listed in critical condition, Weiner said.
The woman told officers Morris’s name and listed some locations where he could be found and Weiner says police learned while checking out those locations that Morris was threatening to commit “suicide by cop.”
After learning that Morris might be in the home on S. Powell Avenue, police surrounded the house.
When he exited the rear of the home with a knife and confronted officers, a detective and officer fired shots at Morris, striking him multiple times, Weiner said.