Suspect in hours-long Michigan hotel standoff in custody after killing clerk, police say

A suspect who barricaded himself inside a Michigan hotel room was taken into custody Thursday night after authorities said he killed a hotel clerk in a dispute with staff over money.

The incident started Thursday afternoon, and Michigan State Police said in a tweet at 8:48 p.m. that the barricaded gunman had been taken into custody without incident.

Dearborn Police Chief Issa Shahin told reporters Thursday night the man was armed with a rifle and threatened officers multiple times during the seven-hour standoff.

"It was quite tenuous," he said.

A 55-year-old man from Riverview was shot and transported to a hospital, where he died. The man was a clerk and “was just trying to do his job,” Shahin said.

The suspect was not identified, but the chief described him as a 38-year-old man with a history of mental illness and drug abuse.

The incident began Thursday afternoon with a confrontation over a bill at a Hampton Inn on Michigan Avenue, near downtown Dearborn. The suspect was upset about asking for a refund, he said.

Calls came in at 1:09 p.m. about shots fired at the hotel. Police secured the area and immediately evacuated people from the building, Shahin said.

Over the next several hours, crisis negotiators worked to try to make a connection with the suspect and end the situation peacefully, Shahin said.

The Detroit division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives responded and urged people to avoid the area.

Additional details about the confrontation and the shooting, which police said happened on the third floor of the hotel, were not immediately available.