After a standoff with law enforcement, a suspect in a violent kidnapping in Grants Pass, Oregon, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head Tuesday night after being taken into custody following a standoff with authorities.
Lt. Jeff Hattersley of the Grants Pass Police Department told KTVL-TV that Benjamin Obadiah Foster, 36, passed away at a hospital in Grants Pass, Oregon, hours after he was taken into custody and transported to the hospital.
In the early afternoon of Tuesday, Foster barricaded himself under a house as officers from four different agencies converged on the area, set up a command post, arranged for a SWAT team to be assembled, and attempted to force Foster to surrender.
Hattersley said the situation was resolved before 8 p.m. but did not confirm whether Foster had been arrested. Police later confirmed Foster was in custody, but a little more than an hour later said he had died.
A woman found unconscious, bound and near death in a home on Jan. 24 was hospitalized in critical condition after authorities received "credible information" that Foster had entered the house.
Residents in the area were notified to shelter in place as police gathered at Foster's home, according to the Daily Courier.
Apparently, Foster was walking his dog in Grants Pass Tuesday morning, according to a post on the Grants Pass Police Department's Facebook page.
Foster slipped away from a raid conducted by law enforcement last Thursday in Wolf Creek, an unincorporated community. Although the community is surrounded by forest, investigators believe Foster had assistance getting out of the area instead of disappearing solo into the wilderness.
In southwest Oregon, Grants Pass is home to some 40,000 people.
A few months before Foster moved to Oregon in 2019, he held his then-girlfriend captive inside her Las Vegas apartment for two weeks. He initially faced five felonies, including assault and battery, and faced a sentence of up to twenty years in prison if he was found guilty.
As a result of a deal Foster reached with Clark County prosecutors in August 2021, he was able to plead guilty to a felony assault charge and a misdemeanor charge of assault constituting domestic violence.
The judge sentenced him to up to a two-and-a-half-year sentence in Nevada prison, but after factoring in the 729 days he spent in jail awaiting trial, Foster was left with less than 200 extra days in state prison to serve after his sentence was rendered final.
