CHELSEA, Mass. (WHDH/AP) — Massachusetts police said a man who barricaded himself inside a house and exchanged fire with officers was found dead of a gunshot wound after the building went up in flames.
Chelsea police Chief Brian Kyes said it’s not clear if the man shot himself or was hit by police.
Officers were initially dispatched to the Warren Avenue home Monday on a report of a man, 38, threatening to shoot his wife, 40. They said the man fired at them from inside and several departments were called in to surround the building.
State police said the domestic altercation resulted in the man chasing his wife out of the home and across the street to another house, where the man allegedly discharged his firearm in the direction of the room where his wife and daughter were hiding.
The suspect later returned to the home and fired multiple shots at responding officers, according to police. Troopers and officers evacuated residents of surrounding homes and of a nearby apartment building.
Negotiators and a SWAT team surrounded the home in an attempt to resolve the situation peacefully, but were not able to.
Shortly after the shootings, the house caught fire with the man still inside, police said. Fire crews attempted to douse the flames from a distance. Police said the suspect set the fire in the home’s garage.
The suspect’s body was found in the home shortly after 2 a.m. His name has not been released.
No officers were shot, but one did suffer a minor hand injury. Kyes said a woman and her 10-year-old daughter were not harmed.
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