Suspect in killing of 4 hostages dies

CLINTON, Miss. — A man who shot and killed four people he held hostage in a Mississippi home has died from gunshot wounds he received during the 12-hour standoff, authorities said Sunday.

Two small children were released unharmed from the home in Clinton several hours after the standoff began, police said. Not long afterward, TV cameras captured the sounds of a barrage of gunfire. Police used a battering ram to force their way into the house and found four people dead and the suspect wounded, authorities said.

Nam Le, 34, later died from his wounds at a hospital, said Hinds County Coroner Sharon Gresham Stewart.

The standoff began around 2:30 a.m. Saturday when officers checking on a domestic call were fired upon, according to authorities. The suspect went back inside the home and refused to come out, authorities said. Officers fired shots during the standoff, but a statement from Mississippi Public Safety Department spokesman Capt. John Poulos did not say if Le shot himself or was wounded by officers.

“When our officers arrived, they received fire from the suspect. The suspect then retreated into his home, and it is with a saddened heart that I report multiple fatalities,” Clinton Police Chief Ford Hayman was quoted afterward as telling broadcast outlet WAPT.

Stewart told WAPT that all four killed in the home were shot multiple times.

The coroner identified the four killed in the home as 30-year-old Lan Thi My Van, 28-year-old Le Thi My Van, 65-year-old Cho Thi Van, and Phung Minh Le, local broadcast stations reported. Stewart did not immediately specify the relationships among them.