An autopsy has determined that the Fulshear, Texas, man who died on Friday after holding hostages at gunpoint succumbed to two self-inflicted gunshot wounds, confirming the Valparaiso Police Department’s account of events.

On Tuesday, Porter County Coroner Chuck Harris told the Chesterton Tribune that Roy L. Ferguson, 48, shot himself twice in the head. Ferguson’s death will be ruled a suicide, Harris added.

A third gunshot wound sustained by Ferguson—to the upper right quadrant of the chest—was not life-threatening and did not contribute to his death, Harris said.

Harris did not say so—and in fact referred all other questions to the Indiana State Police, which is investigating the incident on behalf of the VDP—but Ferguson appears to have sustained the wound to the chest in the opening minutes of the incident, in an exchange of gunfire with the first officers on the scene.

After deadline on Tuesday, the ISP released a few new details about the incident. It began around 10:05 a.m. when Ferguson walked into the Prudential Executive Group at 2612 N. Calumet Ave. and “fired several rounds into the air.”

There was then a “brief exchange of gunfire between Ferguson and police,” which “resulted in Ferguson’s being injured,” the ISP said.

Ferguson, however, managed to take two hostages, a man and woman, and barricade himself with the pair in a room in the building. He later released the woman, whom Ferguson “injured in the upper part of her body,” although how exactly the ISP did not say.

Unknown to Ferguson, a second woman was hidden in the same room, the ISP said, and both this woman and Ferguson’s male hostage were subsequently released through the efforts of negotiators.

Ferguson appears to have shot himself twice in the head as the Porter County Sheriff’s Police SWAT Team was making entry, the ISP said.

Harris has said that Ferguson was an ex-Valparaiso resident who had returned to the area for a week or so to “fix up” an apartment he owned.

Assisting in the investigation, the ISP said, were the VPD, the PCSP, the Coroner’s Office, the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, the FBI, and ATF.

Posted 5/30/2012