CLEVELAND, Ohio – A once lauded Cleveland police officer on the run from authorities after breaking his GPS monitor a week before his rape trial was set to begin fatally shot himself Tuesday, ending a six-hour standoff with a SWAT team.
Tommie Griffin III, 52, fatally shot himself in the chest with an AR-15, U.S. Marshal Pete Elliott said. Griffin had been hiding from police since he broke his ankle monitor on Saturday.
Griffin on Tuesday killed himself in the basement of a home in the 3600 block of West 165th Street in the Kamm’s Corners neighborhood, where investigators believe he hid since 7 p.m. Monday.
“Mr. Griffin put Cleveland police in a very, very bad position,” Elliott said. “It’s not the ending we wanted to see, but it is what it is.”
The SWAT team surrounded his home about 11 a.m. Tuesday and made dozens of attempts, using a police bullhorn, to see if Griffin was alive inside the home. Two nearby schools went into lockdown as officers strategized.
SWAT negotiators were unable to make contact with Griffin as officers stood outside through two quick bursts of rain, Elliott said.
Griffin fatally shot himself about 5:30 p.m. as the SWAT team entered the home, Elliott said. He did not leave a suicide note, Elliott said. Some of the SWAT officers had worked with Griffin in the city’s First District, which also encompasses the home where Griffin was found on Tuesday.
“They’re taking it pretty hard right now,” Cleveland police First District Commander Daniel Fay said.
Griffin broke his GPS-monitored ankle bracelet on Saturday and was considered to be armed and dangerous while he was on the run.
Griffin stayed at the Motel 6 on Lorain Road in North Ridgeville on Saturday and Sunday with the help of an accomplice, Elliott said. Another person drove him Monday evening to the home on West 165th Street, which was a friend’s house, Elliott said.
Elliott said he expected at least one accomplice to be criminally charged for helping Griffin. He declined to provide any information on the accomplice, including if that person had been arrested.
Elliott also said investigators will try to determine where Griffin obtained the automatic rifle he used to kill himself.
“That’s a powerful weapon that could have been used on any one of our guys,” Elliott said of the AR-15. “That was the worry we had all day– that he was going to take one of us out.”
Griffin was set to begin trial Oct. 30 on multiple counts of rape, kidnapping, felonious assault and domestic violence in the January attack on his 42-year-old girlfriend.
Griffin has been on house arrest since posting bond in March, after his defense attorney convinced Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Maureen Clancy to lower his bond from $250,000 to 10 percent of $200,000.
Clancy found Griffin violated terms of his bond and approved a warrant for his arrest on Saturday, according to court records.
The attack came the day after Griffin found his girlfriend with another man inside their home on Jan. 13, according to police.
Griffin, in his police uniform, pistol-whipped her with his service weapon and punched her in the face several times, according to prosecutors. He also fired two shots into the mattress, inches from her head, court records say.
He ordered the woman to take a shower, then forced her to the basement, pointed the gun at her again, forced her to perform a sex act on him at gunpoint, according to police.
Police later seized more than 60 guns from his home, including including 50 pistols, five assault rifles and a submachine gun.
He resigned his position with the department in March.
Griffin was hired as a Cleveland police officer in 1994. He was awarded the department’s distinguished service medal in 2009.