Armed robbery suspect prompts two police pursuits Friday

A suspect in an armed robbery died early Saturday morning at St. Elizabeth Hospital after police say he shot himself inside a vacant home and led police in several jurisdictions on separate pursuits.
It all began Friday afternoon when the robbery happened at a gas station in Girard. Soon after, Niles police began pursuit of a blue Ford SUV headed toward Liberty Township. Dispatchers said the 30-year-old man driving the SUV was homicidal and suicidal, driving with a gun to his head.
Eventually, they ended the pursuit after the man went the wrong way onto a highway in Youngstown.
Later in the afternoon around 5:15 p.m., Liberty police spotted the suspect's car and tried to pull it over; the man sped off again. The short chase ended in the driveway of an abandoned house along Youngstown-Hubbard Road near Applegate Road. Liberty police say the man ran inside the house, again with a gun to his head. Officers set up a perimeter and called in the crisis response team. Just as the team got to the scene, they heard a single gunshot from inside the house.
They went inside and found the man on the floor with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
No one else was hurt.