FOUNTAIN, Colo.—The bodies of a man and a toddler were found inside a house following a six-hour standoff in Fountain, just south of Colorado Springs, during which a woman was wounded while trying to escape, police said.
Officers found the bodies Monday evening after trying unsuccessfully to contact the man, who was believed to be armed. Police are investigating the deaths as a murder-suicide, said Fountain city spokesman Jay-Michael Baker.
Authorities haven’t identified the people involved or their ages, but Fountain police Chief Todd Evans described them as a family.
The standoff began after police responded to a call of a disturbance at the house around 2:30 p.m. Monday. Two officers found an armed man at the house and retreated to coordinate a response with other officers who had responded, witnesses and Evans told The Gazette.
Neighborhood resident Tiffany LaGuardia told the newspaper that a woman ran out of the house, was shot and then collapsed as she tried getting into a pickup.
The man went back inside the home. A neighbor held the woman’s head until paramedics arrived.
“She came out screaming and yelling for help,” LaGuardia said. “He came out shooting her. He came chasing her down, gunned her down.”
Police Cmdr. Mike Haley told The Gazette there was a second report of shots fired shortly after the woman was wounded. Police tried unsuccessfully to contact the man on the phone and public address system for several hours before a SWAT team entered the home and found the bodies.
The injured woman works for the El Paso County sheriff’s office, Baker said. He could not confirm her condition.
El Paso County sheriff’s officials and Fountain police did not return messages left Tuesday morning.
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Information from: KRDO-TV,
