Trending
ELKINS -- The Elkins Police Department has released the name of the man who apparently shot himself during an incident involving a SWAT team last week on Evans Drive.
Ty Garrett Hilderbrand, 35, was the individual who barricaded himself inside a home and was found dead of an apparent suicide after an hours-long standoff with area law enforcement agencies the evening of Jan. 21, Elkins Police Chief Travis Bennett said Thursday.
Hilderbrand had recently moved to Elkins from Missouri and was living with a woman at the residence, neighbors to the home told The Inter-Mountain. During the standoff incident he was alone in the house, authorities said. Hilderbrand was born in Norman, Oklahoma, and was a 2004 graduate of Purcell High School.
Prior to the incident, the Elkins Police Department had contact with Hilderbrand in relation to a domestic violence call. In the course of this contact and during subsequent communications with law enforcement and community members, Hilderbrand stated that he was armed and that he intended to resist the EPD's investigation, according to an EPD press statement released Thursday.
Hilderbrand threatened to burn down his house, which is located next to Jennings Randolph Elementary School, and other houses, the release states.
The EPD SWAT team was sent to the house on Evans Drive the evening of Jan. 21 in an attempt to serve a felony warrant on Hilderbrand, who was accused of making terroristic threats, according to information released by the City of Elkins.
Once on scene, officers learned Hilderbrand refused to leave the residence and had barricaded himself inside the house. Law enforcement negotiated for hours in hopes of getting a peaceful surrender to the standoff. Officers also attempted to force Hilderbrand out of the home with non-lethal chemical irritants and flash-bang grenades.
When Hilderbrand was found dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot in the home, he was in possession of a handgun and rifle, officials said.
The City of Elkins put a shelter-in-place order in effect during the incident and residents of the First Ward area of South Elkins were asked to not go outside, not answer their doors, and to stay away from windows.
Bennett confirmed that the only shot fired during the incident was the one with which the suspect took his own life.
Also on-scene during the incident with the EPD were the Randolph County Sheriff's Office, the West Virginia State Police, the Elkins Fire Department and Randolph County EMS.