DEL CITY — A man is dead, but his two young children and their mother are safe following a standoff with authorities Wednesday.
Del City police officers, including heavily armed members of a special weapons and tactics team, responded about 7:30 a.m. to reports a man had taken his 6-year-old daughter hostage at 1920 Karen Drive. About three hours later, the child walked out of the house and lawmen found the man dead inside of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Authorities evacuated neighbors living roughly a block around the home during the ordeal.
Police Capt. Jody Suit said the man broke into his ex-girlfriend's home overnight, taking her and their two children hostage.
In the morning, the woman called 911 and ran out the door with their 2-year-old daughter, but the man and the 6-year-old remained inside.
“They had just recently separated before this,” Suit said.
Police did not identify the man, but Wanda Frazier told reporters on the scene her son, Shalwan Leshore, 29, was in the house with his 6-year-old daughter.
“He is not going to hurt his kids,” Frazier said, moments before she learned of her son's death.
The man may have been dead by the time most of the officers arrived, Suit said, because the first officer who responded heard a gunshot.
Frazier and others erupted with emotion when they learned Leshore was dead.
Earlier, members of the SWAT team broke a front window to the home and threw a communication device inside to talk with Leshore.
