Police & Fire

Hostage situation ends with man taking own life

A Gig Harbor man killed himself after holding his estranged wife hostage Saturday afternoon.

Pierce County Sheriff’s deputies responded to an 11:31 a.m. call of an armed hostage domestic violence situation near the end of Point Fosdick Drive, according to spokesman Sgt. Darren Moss. Two teenage boys ran out of the house and said their father had arrived with a shotgun, pointed it at their mother and threatened to kill her, and locked her in a bedroom with him.

Deputies tried unsuccessfully to call inside, then immediately called in a SWAT team, that also failed to make contact. As they drove an armored vehicle down the driveway, the mother ran out of the house at 1:51 p.m. and said the man had shot himself. Deputies went inside and found him deceased.

The 43-year-old man and 47-year-old woman were separated and he had not been living at the house.

The woman had been beaten and was taken to a hospital for injuries that are not life-threatening, Moss said.

“We’re thankful that we were able to keep the kids safe and the wife wasn’t killed, but she did have serious injuries and was taken to the hospital, but it sounds like she’s going to be released,” Moss said.

(Gig Harbor Now considers suicide a private matter and would only report on a suicide if it involves a well-known person, occurs in public or under unusual circumstances, in this case a hostage situation.)