Logan Square Barricade Situation Ends With Suspect's Suicide
By Marcus Gilmer in News on Feb 21, 2009 7:30PM
While Chicago Police have not officially confirmed it, other authorities and several media outlets have stated that the man who holed himself up in a Logan Square apartment building yesterday evening was Tyler James Martin, a former McHenry resident accused of killing his girlfriend (Amber Kathleen Cremeens, also a former McHenry resident) in Denver earlier this week. The standoff ended when Martin committed suicide around 7:30 p.m. Authorities in the Denver area had warned local police that Martin was likely on the run and planning to return to the Chicago area to see family.
The incident began yesterday afternoon when police attempted to make a stop at Dickens and Spaulding on a vehicle registered to Martin. Upon being stopped, the suspect ditched a handgun and bolted. Police chased the suspect, who still had two other weapons, on foot before he entered an apartment building in the 2300 block of North Kimball. Police tried to use the PA system to communicate with the suspect but he never responded. Police later escorted residents out of the building safely and a hostage/standoff unit was called in. It appears that Martin never got farther than the building's vestibule.
After three hours, police heard a muffled gunshot come from the building. Upon entering, SWAT team members found Martin, dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head and "slumped against a wall with two handguns in each hand." No one else was reported hurt in the incident.
The only confirmations that have been publicly stated have come from Colorado police who were investigating Martin's role in Cremeens' murder. Martin had been the prime suspect in the shooting death of Cremeens in the Denver suburb of Wheat Ridge earlier this week. Lisa Stigall, spokeswoman for the Wheat Ridge police department, said last night that the Logan Square apartment building "does belong to a family member of Martin's," and added, "We have to let the forensic process go through, but we did find his vehicle nearby." [CBN, WBBM, Daily Herald]