Police: Man opened fire on Princeton officers before taking own life

An armed man who allegedly opened fire on Gibson County, Indiana, law enforcement Wednesday morning later died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

That's according to Princeton Police Chief Bobby Wood, who told the Courier & Press that officers were sent to the 700 block of South Seminary Street around 7:15 a.m. Wednesday to perform a "welfare check" after a man was seen holding a firearm.

"Officers arrived on scene for the welfare check; they went inside the house," Wood said. "They were advised that the male with a gun was in the back of the house by a garage area. They went to the back of the house and encountered the man; the man had a firearm and the officers yelled for him to drop the firearm."

The man, whom the authorities had not publicly identified as of Wednesday morning, reportedly then retreated inside the garage and shut the door before opening fire just seconds later.

"He fired multiple shots from inside of the garage through the door and the wall to the outside garage door, which the officers were in the area of," Wood said.

The police moved to safer positions and called in an Emergency Response team that deployed a drone and other surveillance tools, Wood said.

While the officers had access to "less-lethal" weapons such as bean-bag launchers and chemical irritants, Wood said the weapons were not used and no responding officers returned fire.

Upon entering the garage, the man was found deceased from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the police said.

The Gibson County Coroner's Office will lead the death investigation and publicly identify the deceased man after notifying next-of-kin.

None of the responding law enforcement personnel, which included Princeton police, Gibson County Sheriff's deputies and Indiana State Troopers, were injured.

"It's still an active crime scene but should be cleared here shortly," Wood said Wednesday morning. "I've got investigators that are still looking into different parts and avenues of this, talking to different people that they need to reach out to."

Woods said crime scene detectives were working "diligently" to collect evidence at the scene to help piece together exactly what led to the shooting and reported suicide.

This is a developing storyand may be updated.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Police: Man shot at Princeton, IN, officers before taking own life