Man fatally shoots himself after 24-hour standoff in southwest Charlotte, police say

Jonathan Limehouse, Mark Price
·2 min read

A man shot and killed himself while barricaded inside a southwest Charlotte home following a 24-hour standoff, police said Monday afternoon.

Throughout Sunday night, and into Monday afternoon, police tried to serve the man an involuntary custody order to get him mental health assistance.

“SWAT standoff has concluded after the subject sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said in a tweet posted at 1:22 p.m. “The subject has been pronounced deceased.”

The identity of the man has not been released.

The incident began at 11:50 a.m. on Sunday when police received to a call about a suicide threat at a home in the Lions Gate community in the 11700 block of Prideland Court, near Tryon Street and Erwin Road. Once at the scene, officers encountered a man in a driveway armed with a shotgun, police said.

Police immediately evacuated the area and tried to de-escalate the situation, but the man went into the garage and refused to leave, CMPD said in a news release. A SWAT team was called to help negotiate a surrender, police said.

The man spoke with CMPD’s community policing crisis response team and negotiator, friends and family for more than 24 hours, police said.

The man continued to hold the shotgun during the standoff, firing one round inside the home at 4 a.m. No injuries were reported, and officers evacuated neighboring units, police said.

Shortly before 12:30 p.m., officers heard a gunshot from inside the residence and saw the man fall to the ground. Once inside, officers pronounced the man deceased from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.

“I don’t know anything more that we could have done to help this man,” police Capt. John Thomas told reporters Monday afternoon. “It’s tragic.”

Thomas said he saw nothing but compassion and outpouring from all sides of the situation, but it just wasn’t enough to save the man’s life.

Anyone with information about this incident can leave a tip anonymously by contacting Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600 or http://charlottecrimestoppers.com/.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.