A western Iowa man is dead after holding deputies at bay for several hours Tuesday night.
Pottawattamie County Sheriff Jeff Danker says deputies were sent to a home in Oakland at around 7:15 p.m. on the report of a man who was inside the residence with a loaded gun. The man was identified as 44-year-old Marshall Deshong of Oakland.
“We received a call from a neighbor who had heard that Mr. Deshong was distraught, he was in the house, and he had a firearm,” Danker said. Deputies made contact with Deshong by phone. He refused to come out of the home and made threats.
“He made the statement that he had four bullets…three of them were for law enforcement and one was for him,” Danker said. Just before 8 p.m., deputies reported hearing a loud bang and glass shattering. They took cover behind their vehicles. A couple minutes later, a second bang was heard and a patrol vehicle was hit in the rear bumper — a shot believed to be fired by Deshong. Danker said there was a third, “muffled” bang before a robot was sent into the home.
“The robot was able to go in and observe there was a male who was lying on the floor with a gun next to him and he appeared to be injured or deceased,” Danker said. Deputies then entered the home and found Deshong dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Family members told investigators Deshong may’ve been drinking and was upset over recently wrecking his four-wheeler. He was reportedly afraid he would be “going back to jail.” Danker didn’t have any immediate knowledge of Deshong being on probation or his past run-ins with the law.
(Reporting by Ric Hansen, KJAN, Atlantic)