North Bloomfield man shoots himself during standoff

Staff report

NORTH BLOOMFIELD

Kenneth B. Hamrick, 59, of 2766 Kinsman Road in Bloomfield Township was in critical condition in St. Elizabeth Health Center on Friday with a self- inflicted gunshot wound to the head after a standoff with police Friday morning at his home.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol’s special-response team had gone to his house at 7 a.m. to serve an arrest warrant out of Ashtabula County for failure to appear on charges of operating a motor vehicle impaired and failure to control.

Hamrick initially appeared at the door, but he slammed the door and barricaded himself inside the house, said Anne Ralston, a highway patrol spokeswoman.

Agents tried to negotiate with Hamrick for about four hours through loudspeakers. They called in the Mahoning Valley Violent Crimes Task Force for assistance with its Ballistic Engineered Armored Response vehicle, then later called in its own BEAR vehicle.

Eventually, the highway patrol sent its robot into the home and discovered that Hamrick was inside with a gunshot wound. He was removed from the home and flown to St. Elizabeth. Despite being in critical condition, he was speaking, Ralston said. The case remains under investigation.