tlong@newsobserver.com
A Raleigh police tactical team works the scene of a standoff with a man Monday evening at the 9300 block of Bothwell Street, in the Colonial Grand at Brier Creek. One officer was shot at around 7:30 p.m. The officer's injuries are thought to be non-life-threatening, according to Raleigh police spokesman Jim Sughrue.
RALEIGH -- A man who shot a Raleigh police officer during a standoff at his Brier Creek apartment was found dead Monday night from self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
The standoff lasted several hours and ended when police found Steven Gregory Meyer, 48, had taken his own life, said Raleigh police spokesman Jim Sughrue.
After receiving a report concerning threats of suicide and possible violence that had been made by the suspect Monday morning, Northwest district officers tracked the suspect to his residence at 9321 Bothwell Street, in the Colonial Grand at Brier Creek Place off Alm Street.
Today, police chief Harry Dolan said the report came from a mental health professional, and that police decided to enter Meyer's apartment based in part on information that professional provided. Dolan did not elaborate.
On a 911 recording released this evening, the man who identified himself as the mental health professional said Meyer had told him he wanted to "OD on heroin" and was thinking of strapping a bomb to himself and go to the "city center and take them out." The caller also told a dispatcher that Meyer "hates police."
The caller also indicated that Meyer didn't have anything to lose, because he had lost his job and his marriage had ended.
Police evacuated nearby apartments. Crisis negotiators made contact with Meyer. Despite telephone communication with him over several hours, negotiators were unable to make any significant progress in their dealings with Meyer, and he continually refused to come out of his apartment, said Sughrue.
When a departmental tactical team attempted to make entry to the residence shortly before 7:30 p.m. the apartment door had been barricaded from the inside. Meyer fired several shots through the door, striking Officer A.W. Young several times.
Officer Young, 30, was moved from the immediate area and treated on scene by a tactical paramedic before he was taken to WakeMed. He is in stable condition, said Sughrue.
Young, who joined the department in 2005, was wearing a protective vest. An unknown number of bullets hit the vest, said police spokeswoman Laura Hourigan, while one bullet hit him in the leg and another got underneath the vest near his armpit.
The gunfire was not returned by RPD personnel, said Sughrue.
After deploying tear gas into the apartment without response, entry was made at approximately 11 p.m., Meyer was found dead inside of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Whitney Hilliard, who says she lives in the building next to the one where the standoff is taking place, said police had been around during the day, but that she wasn't asked to leave her apartment until about 7:30 p.m.
"Before I walked out, I heard a lot of people screaming in my hall," Hilliard said. Then a police officer banged on her door and said "We're evacuating," she said.
"I asked him if I could grab my cat, and he said, 'Yes, if you hurry up.'"
Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane and City Manager Russell Allen visited Young in the hospital earlier today, McFarlane said at the beginning of a City Council meeting this afternoon.
Young was in "impressively good spirits" and was preparing to go into surgery, McFarlane said, adding that she and Allen spoke for a few moments with Young's family during the visit.
"There were so many officers there lending support," McFarlane said. "It brings home how much all of our public safety officers put on the line for us every day."
