ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- A man who shot and critically injured his wife then barricaded himself in his basement apartment warning police he had dynamite and would not surrender was shot and killed by police Thursday night.
The tense four-hour standoff ended at about 8:55 p.m. Witnesses said a single gunshot heard coming from the apartment was immediately followed by a barrage of gunfire.
The man, identified as Tim Smith, was carried from the building on a stretcher.
Neighbors said Smith had been despondent over his wife's emotional problems. The woman, who was undergoing surgery for a gunshot wound to the chest, had been hospitalized for psychiatric problems as recently as October, neighbors said.
She was identified as Regina Smith, 33, of Allentown. A spokesman at Allentown and Scared Heart Center, where she was brought by helicopter, said Mrs. Smith's condition was critical.
A police officer also was reported to have suffered a gunshot wound to the leg. His condition was not believed to be serious.
The officer, assistant police chief Charles Charles, left the scene limping.
'It's all over,' he said. 'I'm all right.'
Neighbors said Smith was a Vietnam veteran and foundry worker who had been laid off from his job at Phoenix Forge in suburban Allentown in December.
He had met his wife in Vietnam, where she was as a medic, neighbors said.
The initial shooting occurred at 4:20 p.m. EST in the couple's first floor apartment at the Congress apartment complex on the city's east side, police said.
Skip Day, a maintenance worker in the building, said the wounded woman walked down a hall and outside the apartment, where she told him, 'Tim shot me.'
Police said the man also fired shots at an ambulance called to the scene to aid the wounded woman.
