A Salt Lake man's two-hour standoff with police ended Monday when he took his own life.
Jonathon Meeker Brown, 51, barricaded himself in his Sugar House home at 1500 E. Redondo Ave. (2000 South) about 4 p.m. after federal postal inspectors arrived to serve a mail-fraud arrest warrant. Salt Lake police officers cordoned off the neighboring area, fearful the armed man was holding his girlfriend's two sons hostage."He made it clear that he did have weapons in the home, and our initial information suggested there may be hostages," said police Lt. Marty Vuyk.
The boys, who resided at Brown's home with their mother, were soon discovered across the street in a neighbor's home.
Police tried to negotiate with the self-employed financial consultant after he refused to open the door for his girlfriend about 5:15 p.m. However, numerous attempts to call the man were met only by an answering machine, according to Vuyk.
Officers heard a lone gunshot shortly after 6 p.m.
"After hearing the shot, our officers cautiously entered the building and found Mr. Brown dead in a basement bedroom with a gunshot wound from a large-caliber handgun," said Vuyk.
Although mail fraud is a felony carrying a possible short-term federal jail sentence, police were perplexed why Brown would take such desperate, final actions to avoid capture.
"In the contact that we did have with (Brown), we tried to convince him that this situation did not have to be a life-or-death situation - it was a stumbling block that could be dealt with," said Vuyk.