MOUNDS VIEW, Mo., Oct. 28 (UPI) -- A man threatening suicide in Minneapolis proved to be a suspect in a triple homicide in the city's suburbs, police said.
Johnny Lee Ellis Jr., who stabbed himself in the chest during a confrontation with police, was being held Tuesday at a hospital, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported.
Ellis was the boyfriend of one of three women found dead in a house in suburban Mounds View, Mounds View Police Chief Mike Sommer said. The bodies were discovered Monday after a relative requested a police check on Jolyn Vigen.
A friend identified the other women as Jolyn's daughters: Angela, 40, and Jennifer, 35.
A few hours after the bodies were found, Minneapolis police were summoned to an apartment in the city by a report of a man who was upset about a crime he had committed and was threatening suicide, the Pioneer Press said. They found a knife-wielding man who made threatening gestures as police tried to talk to him.
"This guy was trying to put officers in a 'suicide by cop' situation," Sgt. Jesse Garcia, a police spokesman, told the newspaper. "He wanted the cops to kill him and he wanted to kill himself, also. They went above and beyond, putting themselves in harm's way, trying to detain him."
