Cop killing suspect dead, all night standoff over

MIDDLETOWN, Del. (WTXF/AP) – The suspect in Wednesday’s killing of a Delaware police officer is dead. After 10am Thursday, Delaware State Police announced he left his home at 9:17am, after being barricaded there all night.

Then, they said he “engaged police. The suspect was then shot by law enforcement. He was pronounced dead at the scene at 9:29am.”

We’re also seeing his front door and windows were blown out, while he was barricaded inside.

Late Thursday morning, FOX 29’s Steve Keeley described the scene as “like a massive military maneuver. Blackhawk choppers and hundreds of police and possibly what appears to be National Guard troops.”

He added, the scene is blocked for about a half-mile and, “I have never seen anywhere close to a response like this ever.”

Earlier, he said police were afraid the home is booby-trapped. They brought in an armored bulldozer and may be planning to cut its walls.

Details on how the standoff ended have not been released but a news conference is planned for 1:30pm. Watch it live on Fox29.com and Fox 29’s Facebook page.

Thursday morning, Steve reported a police officer told a neighbor, “It’s been taken care of.”

Also, he saw two armored vehicles escort an ambulance towards the suspect’s Middletown home.

Brick Mill Road has been reopened between Marl Pit Road and Middletown Odessa Road (SR 299) and Brick Mill Elementary School is open.

Delaware State Police said the suspect fired shots at officers — from St. Michaels Drive in the Brick Mill Farms development — as recently as 4am as they tried to negotiate a peaceful surrender.

The man is suspected of shooting Cpl. Stephen J. Ballard to death in the parking lot of a Wawa in Bear, 15 miles to the north.

According to police, early Thursday, “The subject continues to remain barricaded inside the residence and is armed with an unknown type firearm.” Also, his front door and windows had been blown out.

At 8:22pm Wednesday, the Explosives Ordinance Disposal Unit (EOD) used an explosive breaching charge on the suspect’s front door — blowing it off its hinges — but did not go inside.

At about 4am Thursday, they say “officers once again came under fire from the suspect. Allied agencies explosively breeched numerous windows but have not entered the residence.”

Then, multiple Special Operations Response teams and Conflict Management teams tried to make contact with the man to persuade him to surrender.

Neighbors in the area were evacuated. The Odessa Fire Company, on the 300 block of Main Street, opened to temporarily house them.

There are no reported injuries.

Cpl. Ballard, 32, was shot several times at about 12:10pm Wednesday after he approached a car in the parking lot of a Wawa convenience store near Bear. That store will remain closed until Saturday “out of respect to the officer, our associates and all those affected,” company officials said.

State police superintendent Col. Nathaniel McQueen said the vehicle had two suspicious people inside. Then, one got out and shot Ballard several times before running away. The other was arrested at the scene.

A long line of police vehicles with red and blue lights flashing streamed out Christiana Hospital, escorting Cpl. Ballard’s body on the nine-mile trip to the state medical examiner’s office in Wilmington.