Police officer shot in Pottstown, Pennsylvania; suspect fatally shot after hours-long barricade
The man who allegedly shot a police officer during a barricade situation in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, is now dead, according to the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office.
In an updated press release Monday, DA Kevin Steele identified the suspected shooter as 25-year-old Andrew Ecker. On Sunday night, a spokesperson for the Montgomery County Department of Public Safety initially told CBS News Philadelphia that police had taken a suspect into custody shortly before 11 p.m.
In Monday's update, the DA's office said Ecker was actually fatally shot around 10:45 p.m.
Officials said the incident started just after 5 p.m. when officers responded to a crash involving two cars at Beech and North Mt. Vernon streets in Pottstown.
At the crash scene, officers got into a struggle with Ecker when he tried to grab a .22 caliber gun, the DA said.
Police chased Ecker back to his home on Winding Road, where Ecker fired multiple shots at police and struck Pottstown Officer Caleb Whitney in the shoulder, according to Steele. Whitney was treated at Reading Hospital and was released later Sunday night.
Ecker barricaded himself inside the home for more than five hours and refused to leave, at which point SWAT negotiators were brought in to try and get him out of the house. A shelter-in-place order was temporarily issued for residents on Winding Road.
A neighbor who did not want to be identified said they first heard gunshots around 6 p.m. Sunday.
"I was actually making dinner and you just heard this really loud bang and then all of a sudden there was probably a series of six or eight gunshots right in a row like somebody unloaded a clip," the neighbor said.
The DA's office said Sunday that officers returned fire when Ecker shot at police earlier in the evening, but didn't hit him.
Detectives with the county are investigating the circumstances around the shooting.
