Noblesville Police are investigating the cause of what lead a resident to shot his neighbor and then standoff with officers for four hours before his death on July 21.
Lt. Bruce Barnes said a report of a person being shot came in at 2:30 p.m. in the 10300 block of Cerulean Drive in the Meadow Glen subdivision. Barnes said when officers arrived they found a female victim, Tricia Wagner, who was treated by medics for a non-life threatening injury. As medics rushed Wagner to the hospital, Barnes said police officers began looking for a suspect.
The suspect, whose identify has not been released by police, lived next door and returned home after shooting his neighbor.
“He was held up in house. Officers on the scene made contact with him via telephone calls. In the initial communication they tried to encourage him to come out,” he said.
After 30 to 45 minutes of talking, Barnes said communication was broken off. When it could not be reestablished, a SWAT team was deployed with Noblesville and Westfield police officers along with a negotiator.
“They tried to make an attempt to get the person to surrender. They reached out a couple of other times and it still didn’t happen,” Barnes said.
Around 6:30 p.m. the SWAT team fired a second round of non-lethal explosive devices into the home and made entry. Barnes said at that point they discovered the man was deceased.
Barnes said the Hamilton County coroner had to announce the official cause of death.
No other neighbors were in danger during the standoff.
Evan Elliott, whose parents live close to the crime scene, was at their home as the standoff unfolded.
“(He) ran from the Wagners’ house to his house and held himself up in there,” he said. “SWAT was running back and forth. There was a fury of activity for about an hour. After the second smoke bombs went into the home things settled down,” he said.
Elliott said the suspect recently had been divorced and had two children, which neighbors were worried had witnessed the actions of the day. Elliott said the man “slowly stopped talking with neighbors.”
“He seemed like a pretty friendly neighbor and then one day snapped,” he said.
