Robbery Suspect Shot After Holding Children Hostage
A gunman held a pair of young children hostage for nearly 10 hours Tuesday until a SWAT team burst into the apartment where he was hiding and shot him, officials said.
The children were not hurt. The suspect, Roy Latrae Parker, 25, was taken by police helicopter to a hospital, and his condition was not immediately known, said San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Chip Patterson.
Hours before police stormed the apartment, Parker had released a third child unharmed. Parker’s mother had said at the time he was sorry for what happened and would not hurt the remaining hostages.
Authorities said Parker had taken the children--ages 1, 3 and 5--hostage after robbing a bank and then shooting at police and stealing a car as he fled. He ran into the children’s apartment because the door was open and their father was in the yard.
Patterson said police decided to storm the house after dark because telephone negotiations with Parker had broken down.
“He told us he’d be sending out one child and then the other and he wouldn’t do it,” Patterson said.
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