MIDDLETOWN, Del. (Delaware Online) -- A man barricaded in his house for nearly 21 hours after the fatal shooting of a Delaware State Police trooper was killed by law enforcement Thursday morning.
The man, identified as Burgon Sealy Jr. by sources close to the investigation, had been firing at police through the night from his family's Brick Mill Farm development home north of Middletown. State police said the suspect – whom they have not named yet – came out of the home at 9:17 a.m. and "'engaged police." He was then shot by law enforcement and pronounced dead at 9:29 a.m., said Master Cpl. Jeffrey Hale.
At about 10:15 a.m., a medical examiner truck drove toward the development.
Hundreds of police officers remain at the scene of the shooting, with police vehicles parked haphazardly along the road. Helicopters keep taking off and landing from a large green park in the middle of the development.
Numerous agencies are represented, including the FBI, state and county police, Wilmington police and others.
In 2013 Sealy was charged northeast of Orlando, Florida, for possession of a small amount of marijuana and possession of a concealed weapon, according to the Volusia County Corrections. He presented a Delaware driver's license when stopped. Although state officials would not release the suspect's name, police did confirm that the suspect holed up in the home lived there with his family.
Brick Mill Road, which leads to the development where the barricade occurred, has been reopened to the public, and Brick Mill Elementary School classes resumed Thursday morning.
Neighbors began returning home shortly after 11 a.m., trying to venture back to their residences, which had been blockaded away during the standoff.
Some had been stuck in their homes during the nearly daylong standoff while others were shut out.
Several residents, who were evacuated from Brick Mill Farm on Wednesday, spent the night in the parking lot of the nearby Dove Run Shopping Center – a little more than a mile from where the suspect was holed up. Many waited for news of when they could return home.
"No sleep," said Joe Cobb, who spent the time in his Chevrolet Tahoe, listening to the radio and reading news. "Hoping we're going to get the news that we can go back in."
Cobb, who was carrying plants in his SUV that he bought Wednesday at Lowe's, said his family spent the night in a Dover hotel – the nearest place he could find. But he couldn't sleep there because he didn't have his Continuous Positive Airway Pressure machine and decided to stay in the shopping center parking lot.
"The whole community is pretty quiet," he said about his development. "Who would have thought this would have happened?"
As the sun rose, state transportation vehicles and police also could be seen in and around the shopping center, at 228 Dove Run Centre.
One officer picked up several boxes of coffee provided to them by Rishen Patel, owner of Manhattan Bagel. Patel, who was in the Dove Run parking lot early Thursday, said he was happy to help officers.
"Police take care of us a lot so when something like this happens, I think we should all take care of them, too," he said, adding he's provided bagels, too.
State police used an explosive breaching charge Wednesday night on the front door of the St. Michaels Drive home, but officers had been unable to enter the house, Fournier said.
The suspect was armed with an unknown type of firearm, Fournier said.
Police have said the barricaded man is suspected in the shooting death of 32-year-old Cpl. Stephen J. Ballard, an 8½-year veteran of the Delaware State Police who was assigned to patrol at Troop 2 in Glasgow.
Ballard was responding to a "suspicious" vehicle at a Bear Wawa parking lot, in the 1600 block of Pulaski Highway, when he was shot by a man.
Another suspect in the shooting was apprehended at the scene. It is not known how the man who was barricaded at Brick Mill Farm made his way there, but police quickly converged on the Middletown neighborhood shortly after the fatal shooting.
Dozens of police officers first flooded the Wawa on Wednesday in response to the call for an officer down. A large pool of blood was visible in the parking lot, and yellow markers showed where shell casings were found. The trooper's SUV remained parked at the Wawa without its emergency lights on as police investigated.
Witnesses said they watched a man get out of the vehicle during the interaction with police and shoot the trooper multiple times. Citizens jumped in to help the trooper, who was face down on the ground, and performed CPR until emergency responders arrived.
Details on what happened weren't released until hours after the shooting. Officials spoke at a press conference at Christiana Hospital to deliver the tragic news.
“My heart is with the officer’s family and the officers who have served beside him," Gov. John Carney said in a statement. "Delaware's law enforcement officers go to work every day knowing they put their lives on the line to protect ours. We are incredibly indebted to their bravery and service.”
Carney ordered all flags to be flown at half-staff until further notice.
