WHEAT RIDGE, COLO. — Police say a man thought to be Tyler James Martin, who was wanted in the death of his ex-girlfriend in the Denver suburb of Wheat Ridge, killed himself Friday evening after barricading himself inside a Chicago home.
Authorities on Friday night had not confirmed the man was Martin. But Wheat Ridge police spokeswoman Lisa Stigall said the home in which the man was found belonged to one of Martin’s family members and his vehicle was found nearby.
“We think it was him, but we can’t confirm that,” Wheat Ridge police Sgt. Lila Cohen said.
Stigall added, “Positive identification is generally a forensic process that may take several hours or days to complete.” Martin, 35, of Denver, was wanted in the death of Amber Kathleen Cremeens, who was run off the road in her vehicle Tuesday before she was shot inside it, police said.
Friday afternoon, Wheat Ridge police released a chilling 911 tape of a call made to police by Cremeens’ current boyfriend, who was talking to Cremeens as she described being chased by an ex-boyfriend in the moments before her death.
In the recording, the boyfriend tells a 911 dispatcher that the ex-boyfriend “has been stalking the hell out of her.” “He will not leave her alone,” Cremeens’ boyfriend tells the dispatcher. He is identified only as Alex in the call.
“He can’t get you if you keep driving, Amber,” the boyfriend tells Cremeens.
Moments later, Cremeens is heard screaming.
“He’s trapping you?” the boyfriend asks, and then, “He’s trying to run you off the road?” before losing the call.
A subsequent caller to the 911 dispatcher reports a car accident and a shooting in the area where Cremeens said she was being chased.
Police say Cremeens, 34, dated Martin for about eight years until August and that he exhibited “stalking behavior” toward her.
Martin’s neighbors told The Denver Post on Friday that he had showed them three guns he had bought to protect himself from neighborhood gangs. Martin had reportedly told friends he and Cremeens had made up and he was excited about a possible reunion.
Police said Friday they were expanding their search for Martin to Missouri and Illinois, where he had friends and family.
Cohen didn’t know what prompted police to respond to the home on Chicago’s North Side late Friday afternoon, but she said the man believed to be Martin was inside alone.
Stigall said a swat team surrounded the residence and then entered it shortly before 7 p.m. They found the man dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, she said.
