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OHIOVILLE, Pa. (AP) – Police fatally shot a man ending an all-night standoff that began when the man exchanged gunfire with police who responded to a domestic dispute in nearby Ohioville.
Beaver County District Attorney David Lozier says 37-year-old Ryan Shorak was killed shortly before 7 a.m. Friday at his home in Ohioville, located minutes away from East Liverpool, just across the stateline. Lozier told the Beaver County Times the man was killed by a Pennsylvania state trooper.
Police say they were called after Shorak began drinking and allegedly threatened his wife. She ran from the Wildwood Road home, locked herself in a car and called police.
” … (Shorak) was beating on her car with a gun, probably a rifle,” Lozier told the newspaper.
A warrant charging Shorak with attempted homicide and other charges was obtained by police before he was shot early Friday. It wasn’t immediately clear what prompted those shots.
Officers from Midland and Ohioville were first on the scene around 9:15 p.m., it was reported, with the first gunshots ringing out around 11:15 p.m.
Lozier told the Times that Shorak shot at police, “pinning four officers behind their patrol cars” and the officer then returned fire.
Soon after, the Pennsylvania State Police and its Special Weapons Emergency Response Team set up a command post at nearby Ohioville Volunteer Fire Department.
It was at the command post where Shorak’s wife was interviewed to “help the SWAT team understand what was going on in the house and she could help negotiate,” Lozier told the newspaper.
SWAT negotiators were in communication with Shorak, but, according to Lozier, he was “belligerent” and “making threats the whole time, threatening to kill the officers.”
Shorak was said to be well-armed as he barricaded himself in the home. He reportedly told officers among his arsenal was an AK-47 assault rifle and a .50-caliber firearm. Weapons were found near windows and doors inside the home.
“… The police felt they had no choice but to end the standoff the way they did,” Lozier told the newspaper.