COLUMBUS – A five-hour standoff with police that began when an elderly man barricaded himself inside a home in the Mt. Vernon neighborhood ended with the discovery of a dead woman inside the home and the man injured by a self-inflicted gunshot.
UPDATE 10/19 9:24 a.m.: Police release names of victim and suspect
Columbus police received a call at 4:55 p.m. Wednesday about a shooting at the house in the 500 block of N. Ohio Avenue where a man barricaded himself inside when police arrived, Sgt. Stanley Latta of the Homicide Unit said.
SWAT teams from the Division of Police and the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office responded and began negotiations that ended just after 10:00 p.m. when the Columbus SWAT team entered the home where the man fired several shots at officers before shooting himself, Latta said.
The man – described as in his 60’s and whose identity had not been determined early Thursday — was taken to Grant Medical Center in critical condition.
Inside the home, officers found a woman in her 70’s who was pronounced dead at the scene, Latta said. Her name was withheld pending notification of next-of-kin.
A second male in the home was not injured and Latta says he is not considered a suspect.
The case is under investigation and the exact motive is uncertain but Latta says investigators are treating it as a homicide, the 87th of the year in Columbus, and an attempted suicide.
Anyone with information regarding this homicide is asked to contact the Columbus Police Homicide Unit at 614-645-4730 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-8477.