Orlando Gunman Kills Self, Four Children After 24-Hour Police Standoff
Tragedy has struck Florida yet again, as an Orlando gunman took the lives of four children and himself after a 24-hour standoff with the police.
According to People Magazine, the Orlando gunman was a man by the name of Gary Wayne Lindsay, who was 35 years old.
#Breaking: 4 children, gunman found dead 24 hours after Orlando standoff began https://t.co/icFv196RCP pic.twitter.com/TU4unxb0Ol
— Orlando Sentinel (@orlandosentinel) June 12, 2018
The ordeal began more than 24 hours ago, when the Orlando police department responded to a domestic violence disturbance. Lindsay’s girlfriend called the police claiming that he’d beaten her, savagely, and she managed to escape his grip in time to call the police for help.
Gunman kills self, 4 child hostages after Orlando standoff https://t.co/jrwLIUVkH9
— CTV News (@CTVNews) June 12, 2018
When the officers arrived on the scene, Lindsay opened fire and shot one of them — Officer Kevin Valencia — who is currently listed in critical condition. A Facebook posting from the Orlando police department asks its followers to “pray” for the officer, in the hopes that he will, ultimately, survive the shooting.
https://www.facebook.com/orlandofop25/photos/a.649617871715377.1073741829.121131941230642/2235736476436834/?type=3
When Officer Valencia was shot, the police on the scene began returning fire, but no one was hit.
At that time, Lindsey barricaded himself in the apartment with the four child hostages after he was mentioned as a suspect in a domestic violence dispute.
More than 40 officers responded to the scene, and the nearby apartments were evacuated, in order to negotiate the safe release of the children.
Two of the children in the possession of the Orlando gunman were his, with his girlfriend, while the other two were his girlfriend’s children from a previous relationship.
The children who were trapped with Lindsey ranged in ages from one to 11.
What remains a question in investigator’s minds, according to CTV News, is why Lindsey was permitted to have a gun in the first place. Court records that were pulled at the time of Lindsey’s death showed that he had a long history of violence, arrest, and convictions. In the past, he’d either been arrested for, or convicted of, a series of crimes involving arson, battery, and theft. In addition, at the time of his death, he was on probation for several charges, including arson, which is a felony in the state of Florida.
Florida law specifically prohibits convicted felons from possessing a firearm. However, as has been previously reported by the Inquisitr, the state hadn’t done background checks for more than a year, because the employee in charge of running the background checks couldn’t log into the database.
Police said that they would be conducting autopsies on the children murdered by the Orlando gunman.
