Rachel Greco, Matthew Miller, and Eric Lacy

Lansing

DELTA TOWNSHIP -- A 34-year-old Lansing man carjacked a pickup truck and led police on a six-hour chase before shooting himself in the head in a backyard shed this morning in Delta Township, Eaton County Sheriff Tom Reich said.

The man, identified as David Lem Sprague, was taken to the hospital, Reich said, Sunday morning.

He faces charges that could include kidnapping, carjacking and fleeing and eluding police, Reich said.

Police initially responded to a 2:54 a.m. 911 call from the owner of the pickup truck about a man with a gun outside of the Delta Township Meijer, Reich said. What the deputies didn't realize at the time was that Sprague had carjacked the pickup along with the driver and a passenger, he said.

The victims, a 36-year-old Lansing man and a 30-year-old man from DeWitt, were not harmed, Reich said.

Sprague abandoned the vehicle and led officers on a foot chase near Sharp Park.

"At one point in the foot pursuit, the individual was seen pointing a gun at his head and our deputies attempted to negotiate with him to put the gun down," Reich said. "He didn’t."

The chase started again. Sprague fired a round, Reich said. The deputies backed off and lost him "because we’re talking 3-something in the morning in a wooded area."

What followed was a massive search that included between 60 and 70 police officers and dispatch personnel from both the Eaton County Sheriff's Office and the Lansing Police Department, along with a Michigan State Police helicopter and tracking dogs.

Two deputies found Sprague inside a backyard shed at a house near the intersection of Riley Ridge and Stoney Point drives.

"Once again, the suspect pointed the gun at his head, and our deputies once again attempted to negotiate to have him put down the weapon," Reich said. "Our deputies backed off because that’s what our protocol is."

When they backed off, they heard a single shot, he said.

"They re-approached the shed and found that the person was laying on the ground with a self-inflicted wound to the head area."

Terry Walters, who lives on Sand Point Drive in the neighborhood where Sprague was found, said he believes the search for Sprague ended at one of the houses behind his.

On Sunday afternoon he stood near his garage talking about the incident with neighbors.

Walters went outside just before 8 a.m. Sunday to let his dogs out and look for his copy of the morning paper and went back inside his when it wasn't there, unaware of the search. He came out again around 9:30 a.m. to find police cars parked in the neighborhood.

"First I thought somebody had a heart attack or something," he said.

A portion of his backyard fence had been knocked down at some point during the night or early morning. Police told him it was knocked down during their search, he said.

"Anybody in this neighborhood can walk around the neighborhood and feel safe," Walters said. "We don't really have any problems like that, not really. It's just a nice neighborhood."

Kathy Snyder, who lives just one street down, said the sound of a helicopter woke her family up at 4:20 a.m.

"This is like what you see on TV," Snyder said. "It was like, 'This has gotta be something big, because obviously they don't have helicopters for just anything.' It was scanning our back yard."

According to State Police records, Sprague's criminal history dates back nearly 20 years. He's been convicted of two felonies, including larceny in 1997 and possession of a weapon while in prison in 1998.

"I know he has a history of violent crimes and (the Lansing Police Department) was very familiar with this individual," Reich said.

Sprague was taken to a local hospital. At noon Sunday, Reich said he had no information on his condition.

Katrina Sprague, David Sprague's sister, said her brother is in critical condition and likely won't survive his injury.

"He has a strong heart, but his heart is going now," she said. "He's not going to make it."

Katrina Sprague believes her brother suffered a mental breakdown. She lives in Texas and talked to her brother about a week-and-a-half ago, but she said he "went off the grid" after that and couldn't be reached.

Katrina Sprague said their mother died in August.

"He wasn't a bad person," she said. "He wasn't perfect. He did wrong but he wasn't a bad person. He wasn't malicious."

Contact Rachel Greco at (517) 528-2075 or rgreco@lsj.com.