A domestic dispute in Clinton on Monday led to a stand-off and a hostage situation that ended with the suspect taking his own life. Clinton police were called to the Iowa Workforce Development Office about 2 P.M.
The man, an Illinois resident, had reportedly entered the building with a gun and let the employees leave, except for his wife. The identities of the suspect and the hostage have not been officially released.
Police Captain Mike Gertson, commander on scene, says police arrived and set up a perimeter and began negotiating with the suspect. Numerous area law enforcement agencies were called in for assistance including the local and state hazardous entry teams.
Captain Gertson says negotiations with the suspect were on-going via telephone for the six-hour period and negotiators believed they had an agreement for the suspect to give himself up.
He says the woman was sent out around 8 P.M. but then the gunman fatally shot himself. Gertson says: "The resolution we were hoping for is that everybody came out and it didn’t turn out that way. I wish it would’ve been different but we didn’t really have any control over it." He says the female hostage was not seriously hurt and was being interviewed last night.