COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – A 4-hour standoff with an armed man in the back of a sheriff's deputy's patrol car in Colorado ended when the man fatally shot himself, sheriff's investigators said.
El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder said the 33-year-old man, who was arrested in on drug charges, shot himself Tuesday night after he was searched, handcuffed and placed in the back seat of the patrol car in Colorado Springs and somehow got a gun.
"It's tough. This is not the outcome we were after," Elder said. "We miss dangerous objects. That's just the nature of the game. Unfortunately this time it was a handgun," said Elder.
The confrontation began after the man slipped out of handcuffs, pulled a gun and pointed it at his head while in the back of the deputy's car Tuesday afternoon. The deputy pulled over, fled the vehicle and called for help.
Negotiators tried to talk the man into surrendering over the radio inside the vehicle. The negotiator later spoke with the man on a cellphone after a police robot delivered the device to the front seat of the car.
A shot fired from inside the car ended the standoff and the man died at a hospital. He has not been identified.
It is unclear how the man got a gun into the deputy's car. He was patted down and handcuffed before he was put in the car, said Jacqueline Kirby, a sheriff's office spokeswoman.
Elder said there will be an internal review of the steps deputies took leading up to the standoff. He said there are no plans to put any deputies on leave at this time.
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