Standoff ends with suspect dead near Angola
An overnight standoff between police and an armed man near Angola ended when police entered the home and found the suspect dead.
Jason Arnold, 49, died from a self-inflicted gunshot, according to Lt. India Sturgis of the Delaware State Police.
Sturgis said the incident began at 11 p.m., June 22, when troopers responded to the 32000 block of Cea Dag Circle in Dagsboro for a report of a man wanting to harm himself and his family members.
A Millsboro police officer saw Arnold’s vehicle and began a pursuit, which ended at a house on Blackwood Drive in the Lochwood community near Angola.
Sturgis said Arnold got out of his vehicle and exchanged gunfire with a Delaware State Police trooper and the Millsboro officer. No officers were injured.
But, she said, Arnold was shot during the exchange.
William Pinera, who lives one street over, said he heard the gunfire echo around the usually quiet neighborhood.
“The neighborhood is so safe, we don’t ever have problems,” he said. “Then I just heard, ‘Pow, pow, pow, pow.’ Me being a veteran, it was like being in a war zone.”
Sturgis said the house is registered to Arnold, but none of the neighbors the Cape Gazette interviewed knew him.
State police sent out emergency alerts warning people to stay clear of the area while they tried to locate Arnold.
“It’s been stressful ... I had to walk around [my wife’s] car and look in the vehicles to make sure nobody was hiding inside,” Pinera said.
Police said they tried to initiate negotiations with Arnold throughout the night.
About 11:30 a.m., June 23, officers used an armored battering ram to make a tactical entry into the house, where they found Arnold dead.
Police then canceled the emergency and said there was no threat to the public.
Sturgis said a 69-year-old woman in a neighboring house was injured during the incident, but police are not sure it was related to the gunfire exchange. The woman was treated and released from the hospital.
As of 1:30 p.m., investigators were still on the scene and Blackwood Drive remained closed.
Editor’s note: This story replaces an earlier version.
Bill Shull has been covering Lewes for the Cape Gazette since 2023. He comes to the world of print journalism after 40 years in TV news. Bill has worked in his hometown of Philadelphia, as well as Atlanta and Washington, D.C. He came to Lewes in 2014 to help launch WRDE-TV. Bill served as WRDE’s news director for more than eight years, working in Lewes and Milton. He is a 1986 graduate of Penn State University. Bill is an avid aviation and wildlife photographer, and a big Penn State football, Eagles, Phillies and PGA Tour golf fan. Bill, his wife Jill and their rescue cat, Lucky, live in Rehoboth Beach.
