A 32 year-old man committed suicide during a standoff situation that went on for most of Friday’s early morning hours in Griffith, Ind., authorities said.
The Griffith Police Department received a call from a woman to conduct a welfare check at 1019 N. Jay St., Griffith Police Chief Greg Mance said during a Friday morning press conference. Two officers responded; when one looked in the window, he saw three subjects: two men, one of whom had a handgun in his waistband, and a woman.
The officers tried to coax the man out but he refused, Mance said.
Griffith then deployed the Northwest Indiana SWAT team, which set up the perimeter and started negotiations with the man. After about 40 minutes, the man released the other man.
The woman then told negotiators her 6 year-old daughter was in the house, Mance said.
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Negotiations continued for most of the morning and vacillated between hostile and accommodating, Mance said. At some point, however, the man, whom Mance didn’t identify pending further family notification, stopped answering the phone.
By 8 a.m., the SWAT team called in the Munster SWAT team, which deployed its robot on the first level of the house, Mance said. Once it was secure, officers went in and rescued the girl from her bedroom. She was unharmed.
Upon further investigation, officers found the man dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Mance said.
Mance said the investigation is ongoing but that it appeared to be a domestic-related issue, though the department hadn’t previously dealt with the man before. Alcohol may have been involved as well.
The woman who made the initial phone call appears to have been a friend of the child’s mother, Mance said.
Michelle L.Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.