A woman was critically injured after a gunman opened fire, barricaded himself in a building and killed himself Tuesday afternoon in Lawrence, Massachusetts, according to police.
Investigators say the SWAT situation began to unfold around noon, when a man shot his girlfriend inside their third-floor apartment of a triple decker on Melrose Street.
Officers from the Lawrence Police Department arrived on scene before 1 p.m. Tuesday in response to a call for shots fired at 16 Melrose St. State police said the barricaded suspect was armed with a long gun.
For more than three hours, police tried to make contact with the shooter, identified by the Essex District Attorney's Office as Antonio Gonzalez, 34, but they had no luck.
Family and friends of the couple anxiously waited for word as the tense situation dragged on. Eventually, officers went inside.
A 36-year-old woman was found with a gunshot wound to the head. She is in critical condition and has not been identified.
A 4-year-old boy, one of the couple's three children, was also taken out of the building. He was not injured, but he and a 10-year-old, who was at school during the incident, are now in the custody of the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families.
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Gonzalez died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to authorities.
Family and friends are relieved that all three children were unharmed, and they're grateful to police.
City officials say this is a case of domestic violence between a boyfriend and a girlfriend.
