(UPDATE) BREAKING NEWS: OC resident confirmed dead

Last Updated on Tuesday, 21 February 2012 15:40 Written by Cindy Nevitt Tuesday, 21 February 2012 14:02

SWAT personnel, hostage negotiators and Ocean City Police officers gather Tuesday on 14th Street, a few houses east of the crime scene.

Police, SWAT team, hostage negotiators respond to suicide threat

OCEAN CITY — A letter from an 82-year-old man to his family, promising he would be dead by the time they received it, triggered a massive police response Tuesday, Feb. 21, in the 100 block of 14th Street.

Three hours after the concerned family contacted the Ocean City Police Department, Capt. Steve Ang confirmed the man was dead.

"Our initial investigation indicates the individual died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound," Ang said.

After receiving the call around 11 a.m., Ocean City police officers responded to the scene, where they ascertained an inert male was in a rear bedroom with a weapon. Accounts vary as to whether the gun was on his chest or pointing toward the door. Because the male was not fully visible within the room, Ocean City police were joined by uniformed SWAT officers and hostage negotiators from the Cape May County Prosecutor's Office in securing the immediate neighborhood. Streets were barricaded to the east, west, north and south of 14th Street as dozens of officers and rescue personnel fanned out over the area.

Another officer said hostage negotiators responded because weapons other than the gun used in the suicide were seen at the scene.

Ang said a robot was sent into the home around 1 p.m. and that after it indicated the man was deceased, the SWAT team entered the home. At no time when the police were on the scene was there any gunfire, Ang said.

"Whatever gunfire there was occurred at an earlier time or date," Ang said.

Ang said it is protocol to call for a SWAT team, which is composed of members of area police forces, including two officers from Ocean City, and hostage negotiators, who are overseen by the Prosecutor's Office, to respond in such a situation.

In addition to personnel, a Mobile Command Unit and a Crime Scene Investigation van from the Prosecutor's Office were dispatched to the scene. Police cars, unmarked vehicles and rescue vehicles lined 14th and 15th streets between West and Simpson avenues.

The occupant of the home was alone at the time of the investigation. The letter that set the investigation into motion was written late last week and received Tuesday by family members, who contacted the Ocean City Police Department.

A Crime Scene Investigation van parks a block away from the crime scene on 14th Street in Ocean City.

Cape May County Mobile Command Unit parked on Haven Avenue between 15th and 16th streets.