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Winston-Salem police say suspect who was killed in standoff fired shotgun at officers

Winston-Salem Police Chief Catrina Thompson. WFDD FILE

State investigators are probing the death of a suspect who was shot during an armed standoff with Winston-Salem police last week.

The incident began Thursday night at a home on South Main Street.

Police say 46-year-old Gilbert Collison Jr pointed a gun at his girlfriend during an argument and then left the home. The woman also left to meet with the police about the confrontation. Collison then returned to the home, beginning a standoff with officers.

In a press conference, Police Chief Catrina Thompson said the house was surrounded by SWAT members and negotiators tried to get Collison to surrender.

She said those attempts were met by threats. Thompson said the last contact came just after 2:30 a.m.

“Mr. Collison then fired on the officers with the shotgun for a final time,” she said. “Three officers returned fire, and Mr. Collison retreated deeper inside the home.”

Officers later found Collison dead.

The State Bureau of Investigation has launched a probe of the case and the three officers — Sgt. P.T. Watkins and SWAT members B.H. Ashley and J.M. Heyer — have been placed on administrative leave. Those moves are standard procedure when police shoot a suspect.

Paul Garber is a Winston-Salem native and an award-winning reporter who began his journalism career with an internship at The High Point Enterprise in 1993. He has previously worked at The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The News and Record of Greensboro and the Winston-Salem Journal, where he was the newspaper's first full-time multimedia reporter. He won the statewide Media and the Law award in 2000 and has also been recognized for his business, investigative and multimedia reporting. Paul earned a BA from Wake Forest University and has a Master's of Liberal Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University and a Master's of Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in Lewisville.

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