Pike Creek shooting suspect killed self

The suspect in a Pike Creek shooting the night of Super Bowl Sunday drove to his home near Coatesville, Pennsylvania, and killed himself after police arrived to interrogate him, The News Journal has learned.

New Castle County police said Tuesday that ballistics tests on the gun found with the dead man in Pennsylvania matched the weapon used to wound a 39-year-old man in Delaware about 10 p.m. on Feb. 1.

County police identified the dead suspect as Michael Keeshan, 50, of the 100 block of Durham Drive in Coatesville, about 25 miles from the shooting scene.

The victim, who worked with the suspect's wife, was shot in the torso through the front door in the 5000 block of East Brigantine Court. He was not seriously injured in the shooting, which occurred while his two children, a young boy and girl, slept inside.

County police Chief Elmer Setting said soon after the shooting that police believed the suspect was the same person suspected of killing himself at his Coatesville home about 25 miles away. Setting said then that "police have every confidence" a romantic entanglement was the motive for the shooting.

County police spokesman Officer Thomas Jackson said Tuesday that Keeshan and the victim "were strangers to each other,'' but Keeshan's brother Richard and another source told the newspaper that Keeshan's wife and the victim were employed by a medical sales company in Pennsylvania.

Jackson referred questions about how Keeshan died to police in West Caln Township. Pa., where no one answered the phone Tuesday afternoon.

Richard Keeshan, who lives near New York City, said Pennsylvania police told him in February that authorities in Delaware had alerted them late on Feb. 1 that Michael was a suspect in the Pike Creek shooting. Richard Keeshan said police told him they went to Michael Keeshan's house and he answered the door, then went to another room and shot himself to death.

Richard Keeshan said police speculated his brother took his life "because he thought he was being arrested for murder."

Michael Keeshan, who comes from a family of law enforcement officers, was a 50-year-old father of seven and a successful retail manager.

Since speaking with police in early February, Keeshan said he has been unable to get more answers from his brother's widow or police. Keeshan's widow could not be reached Tuesday.

"We are just distraught and we can't get any real information,'' Richard Keeshan said Tuesday during a phone interview. "Where did he get the gun? We have so many questions."

Contact senior investigative reporter Cris Barrish at (302) 324-2785, cbarrish@delawareonline.com, on Facebook or Twitter @crisbarrish.