A man who police say shot an officer before barricading himself in a Florida apartment killed the four children he had been holding hostage before killing himself, police said Monday. Orlando Police Chief John Mina answers questions at an afternoon news conference during a hostage standoff Monday, June 11, 2018, in Orlando, Fla. Police said a man suspected of battering his girlfriend shot a police officer late Sunday and barricaded himself inside an apartment with several young children. (John Raoux/AP) Police continue to work at the scene of a hostage standoff where a police officer was shot Monday morning, June 11, 2018, in Orlando. Police said a man suspected of battering his girlfriend wounded a police officer late Sunday and barricaded himself inside an apartment with several young children. (Jacob Langston/Orlando Sentinel via AP) In this image made from video, Orlando Police Chief John Mina, center, speaks during a news conference, Monday, June 11, 2018, during a hostage standoff where a police officer was shot in Orlando, Fla. Police said a man suspected of battering his girlfriend wounded a police officer late Sunday and barricaded himself inside an apartment with several young children. (Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel via AP) A Orange County Sheriff Motor deputy,center, gives support to a Orlando Police Motor officer,right, at Orlando Regional Medical Center after a OPD officer was shot and severely injured while responding over night to a domestic dispute call Monday, June 10, 2018. (Red Huber /Orlando Sentinel via AP) Orlando Police block an intersection leading to an apartment complex where an officer was shot and seriously wounded before the gunman barricaded himself in an apartment with young children. Monday, June 11, 2018, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux) Orlando Police Chief John Mina arrives at an afternoon news conference during a hostage standoff Monday, June 11, 2018, in Orlando, Fla. Police said a man suspected of battering his girlfriend shot a police officer late Sunday and barricaded himself inside an apartment with several young children. (AP Photo/John Raoux) Orlando Police Chief John Mina answers questions at an afternoon news conference during a hostage standoff Monday, June 11, 2018, in Orlando, Fla. Police said a man suspected of battering his girlfriend shot a police officer late Sunday and barricaded himself inside an apartment with several young children. (AP Photo/John Raoux) ORLANDO, Fla. — A man who police say shot an officer before barricading himself in a Florida apartment killed the four children he had been holding hostage before killing himself, police said Monday. Orlando police Chief John Mina said at a press conference just before midnight that the suspect, who was identified as 35-year-old Gary Wayne Lindsey Jr., was found dead in a closet when officers entered the apartment nearly 24 hours after the standoff began. Mina said officers tried to offer one of their phones to Lindsey, whose phone had spotty service, and saw that one of the children had been killed. Authorities entered the apartment around 9 p.m. hoping to rescue the others but all were found dead. The children with Lindsey ranged in age from 1 to 11, Mina said. The Orlando Sentinel reports two of them were Lindsey’s children and two belonged to his girlfriend, who called police Sunday. Officers responding to a domestic violence report were fired upon, police said. Officer Kevin Valencia was shot and was in critical condition but is expected to survive, Mina said Monday. One officer was able to return fire, the police chief said. Valencia is in his late 20s and has been with the police department since 2016, Mina said. Court records show Lindsey, 35, had an extensive criminal history involving arson, battery and theft. He was on probation for several charges including arson. Judy Pepper, who lives in the apartment complex, told the Sentinel that she had fallen asleep on the couch after watching a Sunday night baseball game on television when she heard four loud gunshots. “It just went, ‘Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop,’” Pepper said. She looked out the window and saw three people carrying a police officer onto the grass. She said other officers arrived, cut open his shirt and appeared to be putting bandages on his neck. Then, they put him in a patrol car and sped away. “Hell, yes, I was absolutely terrified,” she said. Officers evacuated other residents of the complex in the middle of the night. Some were milling around nearby restaurant parking lots Monday morning, still wearing pajamas. They were later taken to a hotel. The standoff also disrupted the routines of residents who lived in neighboring apartment communities. About five blocks from the apartment, two police squad cars blocked the entrance to the street. Residents of the neighboring apartment complexes had to show identification and be escorted by the police. Several firetrucks lined the road.<doc-sep>“That’s when we decided to start our plans to make entry and try to rescue the rest of the children,” Chief Mina said, adding that the episode had “a very tragic and sad ending.” Image Gary Lindsey Jr., who the police say shot an officer early Monday, is believed to have killed four children during a hostage standoff, then himself. Credit... Volusia County Corrections “Our hearts go out to the families of those four children,” Chief Mina continued. The episode began about 11:45 p.m. Sunday when Orlando police officers responded to a call at an apartment complex just two miles north of Universal Studios Florida. A woman had contacted officers from elsewhere, telling them that her boyfriend, Mr. Lindsey, had battered her after an argument, the authorities said. When officers confronted Mr. Lindsey, he opened fire, striking Officer Kevin Valencia, who suffered what Chief Mina called a “very serious and significant injury.” At least one officer fired back. As of early Tuesday, Officer Valencia, who has been with the department since 2016 and is in his late 20s, remained in critical condition, Chief Mina said. Mr. Lindsey then barricaded himself in his apartment along with the four children. Over the next 21 hours, the authorities urged Mr. Lindsey to release the children. Negotiators spoke with him several times throughout the standoff, and had made contact with him as late as about 8:30 p.m. on Monday, just before SWAT officers entered the apartment.<doc-sep>ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - A convicted felon found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his Orlando, Florida apartment alongside the bodies of four children after a standoff in which he shot a police officer had stockpiled an arsenal of guns, police said on Tuesday. Officers who stormed a three-bedroom unit at the Westbrook Apartments on Monday night, nearly a full day after responding to an emergency call, found two rifles, two shotguns and a handgun inside, Orlando Police Chief John Mina said at a late-afternoon press conference. Mina said it was still unclear when the four children, two of whom belonged to suspect Gary Wayne Lindsey, 35, were shot to death. Lindsey had also shot and killed himself. “It is still a very active and ongoing investigation,” Mina said. “We’re trying to gain as much information about him as possible.” The 21-hour ordeal started shortly before midnight on Sunday when Orlando police responded to a domestic violence call by the suspect’s girlfriend. Lindsey shot and wounded an officer through the apartment’s front door before barricading himself inside with the four children, aged 1, 6, 10 and 11, as hostages, police said. The standoff ended at about 9 p.m. local time on Monday, when police entered the apartment and found the children and the suspect dead of gunshot wounds. The police officer shot at the front door was listed in critical condition at a local hospital. The woman who called the police was the mother of all four of the children, and Lindsey had fathered the two youngest, Orlando police spokeswoman Michelle Guido said in an email. Lindsey was a convicted felon on probation after pleading no contest to arson and battery charges. In a 2008 incident, Lindsey became violent during an argument with his former fiancee and set the house on fire after the woman fled. Residents Miguel and Maria Lopez returned early on Tuesday to the Orlando apartment complex after being evacuated the night before. “I can’t even sleep. I have all the images in my mind, like the police officers, the guns shooting.” Maria said. “I don’t feel safe here.”<doc-sep>A nearly 24-hour standoff took a tragic turn after a Florida man fatally four children he had been holding hostage before killing himself. Gary Wayne Lindsey Jr, 35, also critically wounded Orlando, Florida, police officer Kevin Valencia in a short firefight. The children were aged one, six, 10, and 11 years old. Two of the children were his own but the other two were that of his girlfriend, who has not yet been identified. Recommended Man takes at least two hostage in central Paris The situation began, Mr Mina said, when Lindsey’s girlfriend had called the police to the apartment complex and said Lindsey had beaten her. SWAT officers had been on the case all day, with reinforcements from the bomb squad and approximately 60 officers from the Orange County Sherrif’s office being called in due to working in the heat for an entire day. Mr Mina said Mr Valencia is expected to survive after undergoing surgery, but he remains in critical condition. "We're hoping for prayers from our community for our officer's full recovery. It’s hard. It’s very traumatic when one of your officers is shot in the line of duty,” he said. ✕ French 'hero' police officer Arnaud Beltrame who swapped himself for hostage dies Officers had to evacuate the entire apartment complex in the night and police vehicles lined the entire block. Mr Mina said that police officers had seen one of the children had been killed when they made visual contact with Lindsey, who had barricaded himself and the children in the second-floor apartment, to give him a mobile phone since his had spotty reception in the complex where the incident took place. Hostage negotiators had spoken to him “a couple of times,” Mr Mina noted and they had reviewed floor plans for the residence in an attempt to save the children. 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ORLANDO, Fla. — A man who police say shot an officer before barricading himself in a Florida apartment killed the four children he had been holding hostage before killing himself, police said Monday. Orlando police Chief John Mina said at a news conference just before midnight that the suspect — who was identified as 35-year-old Gary Wayne Lindsey Jr. — was found dead in a closet when officers entered the apartment nearly 24 hours after the standoff began. Mina said officers tried to offer a telephone to Lindsey, whose own phone had poor service, and saw that one of the children had been killed. Authorities then entered the apartment hoping to rescue the others at around 9 p.m., but all were found dead. The children's ages ranged from 1 to 11, Mina said. Orlando Police Chief John Mina. John Raoux / AP Officers had earlier responded to a domestic violence report and were fired upon, police said. Officer Kevin Valencia was shot and was in currently critical condition, they said. He is is expected to survive, Mina said. One officer was able to return fire. Valencia, who is in his late twenties, has been with the police department since 2016, Mina said. Court record shows Lindsey, 35, had an extensive criminal history involving arson, battery and theft. He was on probation for several charges including arson. Judy Pepper, who lives in the apartment complex, told the The Orlando Sentinel that she had fallen asleep on the couch after watching a Sunday night baseball game on television when she heard four loud gunshots. "It just went, 'Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop,'" Pepper said. She looked out the window and saw three people carrying a police officer onto the grass. She said other officers arrived, cut open his shirt and appeared to be putting bandages on his neck. Then, they put him in a patrol car and sped away. "Hell, yes, I was absolutely terrified," she said.