March 28, 2013
03/29/13 A police standoff in the small town of Fulton ended around midnight Wednesday, March 28th with the suspect being shot and airlifted from the site.
Indiana State Police confirm the suspect, Nicholas Westerhoff, 46, emerged from his trailer in the 300 block of West Brown Street around midnight Wednesday and fired shots at police. Police fired back, and struck the suspect. He was then airlifted to a hospital in Fort Wayne with gunshot wounds.
The standoff began around 8:14 p.m. Wednesday as a domestic dispute. The argument spilled into the yard before the suspect apparently fired shots into the air and the woman fled.
Officers arrived on the scene to find the man held-up inside the rear master bedroom of his home with a 12-gauge shotgun and two handguns.
Because of the severity of the situation, the Indiana State Police’s Emergency Response Team, essentially a SWAT unit, was dispatched to assist.
Around 10 p.m., hostage negotiators had arrived. Although their means of communication with the man is unknown, he was last heard telling police he would not leave the house alive.
“He could be charged with disorderly conduct, firing a weapon, there may be a battery charge,” Indiana State Police Sgt. Kim Riley says. “It depends what happened between him and the lady friend. We’ll just have to see what all went on there.”
Indiana State Police confirm the suspect emerged from the home around midnight. He began to shoot at police, who fired back. The suspect was airlifted from the scene to Parkview Hospital in Fort Wayne; Indiana with gunshot wounds. The suspect’s condition has been changed to critical from serious.