Police Say Man Shot Himself 4 Times In The Head During Tulsa Standoff

Tuesday, January 31st 2012, 7:18 pm

By: News On 6

An autopsy reveals a strange but true case of a man dead after shooting himself four times in the head.

Police say Terrence Moses kidnapped his ex-wife last Wednesday, then got into an eight-hour standoff with Tulsa police.

The Special Operations Team rescued the woman, but then say they found Moses dead.

Police realize how unbelievable it sounds that a man could shoot himself four times in the head, but they say the crime scene evidence proves that's exactly what happened.

Police say Terrance Moses got into an argument with his ex-wife last Wednesday, and she later told her family he was holding her at gunpoint.

Officers found them at 2 a.m. on Thursday in his condo at the Brandy Chase Condominiums near 67th and Peoria.

After hours of negotiations, SOT members made entry. They heard a woman screaming and gunshots, then saw her coming down the stairs and rescued her.

01/26/2012 Related Story: Tulsa Police: Standoff Over, Suspect Found Dead Inside Condo

The police department says no officers returned fire because they couldn't see who was shooting a floor above them.

"I can't think of anything worse than when a suspect is above them in an enclosed area," said Tulsa Police Sergeant Dave Walker.

Police sent in a robot around 10:30 a.m. and cameras showed Moses was dead. He had one shot to the chest and four to the head.

Police say the ex-wife might've been trying to wrestle the gun away from Moses when he accidentally shot himself in the chest. As for the next four shots, they say he did those on his own.

Police say he first shot himself under the chin. That bullet exited his face and went into the ceiling. They say he did that twice more with the same result. Then a fourth shot entered his neck, severed his spinal cord and killed him.

"I know it's kind of unusual that we say somebody committed suicide, killed himself by shooting himself four times in the head. I would wince at that too, but if you look at it, line up the holes where he was shot, you can see how that happened," Walker said.

Sergeant Walker says Moses had a Walther 380 and a Springfield Armory .40 caliber and fired them both. Tulsa officers carry .40 caliber Glocks. Sergeant Walker says all Moses' shots were accounted for.

"There's really nothing to hide in this whole thing. We wouldn't hide anything anyway. It's a sad story for him, sad for somebody's life to end that way, but it happens," Walker said.

The medical examiner says Moses died from gunshot wounds but hasn't ruled it suicide yet. They are doing additional testing and measuring plus any toxicology reports would take weeks to get back.

Police say Moses' ex-wife has been interviewed and is not a suspect of any kind in this case.