Police say NC standoff ends, children safe

CANDLER, N.C. — Officials say a standoff with a man who police suspect of killing his ex-wife and two others in western North Carolina ended when the man killed himself.

Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Ross Dillingham said Friday the two children of 45-year-old Richard Heatwole are safe and in police custody.

Dillingham said Heatwole had fled with the children to a cousin’s house in Alexander County, where officers found him. The spokesman said Heatwole is dead from a “self-inflicted gunshot
wound.”

The two children are being taken back to Buncombe County.

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