WILMINGTON, Del. (KYW Newsradio) — Wilmington Police say that three officers are recovering from injuries after being shot by a suspect. That suspect was found dead from a self-inflicted shooting after a 12 hour standoff with law enforcement.
Officers found the body of Bernard Goodwyn, 31, in an apartment near 25th and North Market streets in Wilmington. They recovered his weapon as well. Both his body and the weapon have been turned over as part of a continuing investigation.
The injured officers were taken to the hospital. Police said two of them are recovering and in stable condition, while a third has left the hospital.
Police said they were called to the area around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday because of a domestic incident at the apartment near downtown Wilmington. Officers tried to make contact with Smyrna. As officers entered the apartment, police said that Goodwyn fired his gun and struck the officers.
A neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said she heard 10 to 15 gunshots and then soon saw one officer carrying another who was wounded.
"Typically, I don’t go out to look — because it’s gunshots — but I heard the commotion, and I heard that it was close," she said. "So I came to look out this door, and ... I seen one police officer carrying another police officer. He laid him down."
Then, she said, there was a flurry of activity.
"Other police officers started coming immediately, and when they started coming, they were trying to protect the police officer that was down on the ground. But as well they were trying to secure the area, so they came with their guns pulled. Police started coming from everywhere."
The neighborhood was under a shelter-in-place order Thursday morning affecting residents between 23rd and 27th streets, from West Street to Carter Street. Police had set up a perimeter during the standoff with Goodwyn. Most of their attention was focused on the apartment building where the shooting happened. That building was barricaded through the morning.
Early Thursday morning, police were seen helping a child and two women out of the building.
With the support of about 10 other law enforcement organizations on scene, Wilmington Police spent 12 hours negotiating Goodwyn's surrender and then entered the apartment. They then found Goodwyn, who was from Smyrna.
Word came around 11 a.m. that the shelter-in-place order was lifted and that there was no longer any threat to the public.