Why Toledo is a shithole

[Duchess]

A man chased and gunned down his 20-year-old ex-girlfriend in her car before barricading himself in his home and taking his own life as a SWAT team swarmed outside.

Kaitlin Gerber, 20, was followed by her ex-boyfriend Jashua Prez, 29, as she drove to work in Toledo, Ohio and, as he shot at her, she crashed her car in a parking lot.

Authorities are uncertain whether she had been shot before crashing her car, but said that Prez approached the stopped vehicle and fired several more times.

Prez then fled south to his home in Maumee and barricaded himself inside as a SWAT team gathered outside the property.

Crisis negotiators spoke with him by phone for several hours, and at some points he indicated that he was going to emerge, the Toledo Blade reported.

But when a SWAT team forced their way into his home shortly before 5 p.m. on Sunday, they found him dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Gerber's family said her death was the culmination of months of stalking, threats and harassment by Prez, whom she had met while working in a restaurant ahead of applying to college.

When their relationship turned sour last year, she was forced to dye her hair so Prez would not recognise her, and after he sent her reams of letters to her workplace, she contacted authorities.

But her father, Jeff Gerber, believes they did not do enough to help her.

He said they reported an incident where Prez turned up at her workplace and threatened to kill her with a knife. She later obtained a restraining order against him.

He was charged on February 6 with four misdemeanor counts of violating the order after he continued to call and write to his ex-girlfriend.

But the cases were dismissed three weeks later on the recommendation of the prosecutor's office.

'This guy was in jail for violent behavior and he broke a protection order,' he said. 'He was a monster. A real monster. The criminal justice system has completely disappointed us.'

The family said that, on the day of the murder-suicide, Miss Gerber had seen Prez's car outside her home on Sunday and when she started driving to work, he began following her.

'She drove off to protect the rest of the home,' her father said. 'He was a monster.'

She frantically called 911 at 11.30 a.m. to report that an ex-boyfriend was chasing her in her car with a gun. Witnesses also called 911 to report that a man was shooting at a woman in a car.

She came to a stop on the sidewalk outside a shopping center. Prez drove up to her car and fired several more rounds, Steve Kahle, a Lucas County Coroner’s Office investigator, said.

When officers reached her, she was dead from the gunshot wounds.

'I think it did go well in regard to the fact that no police officers were injured, no citizens, and no other threats were posted to the community at large,' Maumee Police Lt. Jeff Siebenaler told the Blade.

'It’s unfortunate it ended the way it did, but the reality is, that's his decision.'

That's a hell of a comment, Lt. Siebenaler.