By Police1 Staff
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A man ended an hours-long standoff at the Colorado Springs Airport by shooting himself in the head while inside the back of a patrol car, The Gazette reported.
The July 28 incident began when the man slipped out of his handcuffs and pulled out a gun while in the back of an El Paso County sheriff deputy’s car. The deputy pulled over, fled the vehicle and called for backup.
A negotiator spoke to the 33-year-old man over the cruiser radio as he attempted to persuade him to put the gun down. The negotiator switched to talking to him over a cellphone after a police robot delivered the device, set it to speakerphone and set it in the front seat.
“You’re about to do something that you can’t take back,” the negotiating officer said, according to the report. “This is not something that God would ever want for you.”
The man was in the cruiser from 2:45 to 7:30 p.m. and the fatal self-inflicted gunshot wound ended the standoff.
A sheriff’s officer spokesperson said the man was alive when he was taken out of the patrol vehicle.
Authorities are unsure how the man managed to slip a concealed weapon past officers. They had patted him down and handcuffed him before placing him in the vehicle, Jacqueline Kirby, sheriff’s office spokesperson, said.
The man, whose name has not been released, was arrested after officers responded to a “check the welfare” call at a home with children inside. The man was allegedly in possession of methamphetamines.
An investigation is going.