Newark – New Castle County Police Detectives have signed warrants for the arrest of 57-year-old David P. Ashby for shooting his gun inside his residence while police were attempting a check on his welfare, according to M/Cpl. Heather Carter.
Carter said yesterday, November 22, at approximately 1:00 p.m., uniform patrol officers were dispatched to the unit block of Lawrence Ave for a check on the welfare.
When police arrived on scene, gun shots could be heard coming from the area of the residence. While officers were taking cover to establish a perimeter, additional gun fire could be heard coming from inside the residence, said Carter.
It was at this time that First state Update reported that radio traffic from the Delaware State Police indicated that Troopers were being advised by County Police, arriving at the home on Lawrence Ave, that they had been fired upon and were taking cover behind their vehicles. Dispatch then told all Trooper’s responding to the “Active Shooter” situation to switch to a different radio frequency.
Carter said that the investigation concluded that David P. Ashby fired several shots from the interior of the residence in the direction of neighboring occupied homes.
Mr. Ashby was later transported to a local hospital for evaluation and treatment of non – life threatening injuries, which were the result of a self-inflicted knife wound. Mr. Ashby will be formally charged with 2 counts of felony reckless endangering in the first degree and possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony.
Officers did not exchange gunfire with David P. Ashby and were successively able to take him into custody after negotiations, said Carter.
During the standoff an officer on scene experienced an equipment malfunction resulting in his weapon discharging into the ground. This equipment malfunction is being internally investigated as a separate incident.
In a portion of her statement, Carter says “Initial reports by a local media outlet of an active shooter and officers exchanging gunfire with David P. Ashby during the incident were unfounded.” It’s likely that Carter is referring to the definition of the term”active shooter” used by law enforcement an not the fact that a man was actively shooting a gun. First State Update and other outlets used the term “active shooter” but we did not report that officers were exchanging gunfire with the subject.
While we don’t think Carter is singling First State Update out as the source for the “unfounded initial reports” we would like our readers to know that we stand by our reporting.
Our initial report was a very short post to inform the public. We reported exactly what responding Trooper’s were hearing as they responded. This is the entire post.
Newark – Police are closing Route 2 (Capitol Trail) between Upper Pike Creek Road and Harmony Road due to an active shooter. Police officers have been fired upon several times from a home along the roadway.
No officers have been injured but the suspect continues to fire upon them.
Check back to this page we will be posting more soon.
Developing.
As we said, First State Update did not report that officers were exchanging gunfire with the suspect, we also made it clear that the gunfire was coming from a home and that no officers were injured. The original post mirrors Carter’s version of the incident.