Bartlett shooter identified as ex-husband

Brian Hill/bhill@dailyherald.comOnlookers gather along Heather Lane in Bartlett during a four-hour standoff with an armed man. Police said the standoff ended about 4 p.m. when the armed man shot himself fatally.

Police gathered on Heather Lane in Bartlett after shooting and standoff that ended with one person injured and the gunman dead of a self-inflicted wound, authorities said. Brian Hill | Staff Photographer

A Bartlett man who shot his ex-wife in his home during a domestic dispute Tuesday morning later shot and killed himself during a standoff with police that lasted several hours, authorities said.

The woman, who had come to the house to pick up some personal items, escaped to a neighbor's home before the onset of the barricade situation that brought a massive police presence to the 700 block of Gardenia Lane. Her life is not in jeopardy from the gunshot, police said.

Authorities have not yet released them name of the man or his former wife.

Bartlett police officers responded to the home at 11:20 a.m. and called for the assistance of the Northern Illinois Police Alarm System, or NIPAS. Police assistance came from as far away as McHenry, Barrington, Carpentersville, Crystal Lake and Schiller Park.

Some of the officers wore camouflage and tactical gear, and a mobile command unit was set up near the scene.

The armed man barricaded inside the home did not communicate with police, authorities said. By 2 p.m., police were trying through a bullhorn to contact someone inside the home. An officer with a sharpshooting rifle was stationed in a house nearby.

Police obtained a search warrant to enter the home at about 3:40 p.m., and located the ex-husband inside, dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Authorities did not immediately identify the man involved in the standoff.

The shooting victim, he said, was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

The house lies near the Apple Orchard Golf Course, at Sycamore Lane and Stearns Road. Police said they initially detected a strong odor from natural gas coming from the residence, but the concern of a natural gas leak in the neighborhood was eliminated early in the standoff.

"First thing I got was a red alert call from the local police department that there was a gas leak in the area, to stay in the house," neighbor Dan Dumas told ABC 7 Chicago. "And later on my wife called me from work and said she got a phone call on her cellphone from the police telling her to evacuate."

In the end, neighbors were told not to evacuate but stay in their homes, ABC 7 reported.

"It's frightening to see all these sniper guys and SWAT teams, and you think how long is this going to last and you hear rumors about what's going on," Heidi Montgomery said. "These are your neighbors. This stuff doesn't happen here."

Elgin Area School District U-46 spokeswoman Mary Fergus said daily operations continued normally at nearby Sycamore Trails Elementary School in Bartlett, except that students were not allowed to leave the building during the school day.

Students were dismissed at the normal time, though they and their parents were advised that walking and bus routes could be affected by the ongoing police perimeter.

Fergus said Sycamore Trails was the only school in the district affected.

• Daily Herald photographers Bob Chwedyk and Brian Hill contributed.