Daniel Tice confessed to shooting and killing his wife.
“He really gave us no details. He just said he did it,” said Police Chief, Ken Ray.
Tice, 32 shot his wife Brandi Tice, 28 on Jan. 8.
According to the Lakemore Police, Daniel called a family friend, Janice Wood.
“He said he killed her (Brandi) because she was having an affair with his brother,” Wood stated to a 911 operator.
Police said that Tice was distraught over the sudden death of his mother and the fact that his wife asked for a divorce. He did not want his wife to leave. He also had not been taking his medicine a bipolar condition.
Brandi was staying somewhere else and came to the house to pick up the children. The couple was trying to work out shared custody of their three children, ages, 8, 7 and 4. The 4-year old son was in the house throughout the more than seven-hour standoff with police.
Law enforcement officials said that Tice stood guard by the window with his rifle in one hand and his son in the other. The two girls were at school and officers met them at the bus stop and kept them from going to the house.
Daniel phoned his sister and told her that he had hurt his wife. She and her husband immediately went to the Martha Ave. home and found Brandi lying on the living room floor, motionless with a gunshot wound to the head. They ran out of the house. Tice followed them. Outside of the house the brother-in-law tried to wrestle the gun away from Daniel to keep him from hurting himself or someone else. Tice was able to get away and run back in the house. He then barricaded himself and his son in the house. The sister called 911 at 3:20 p.m. to report the incident. The sister was able to later help police establish a dialogue with her brother.
While Daniel was inside the home making calls to friends and family, SWAT members were inching their way closer and closer to the home. Eventually, they were able to enter the house when Daniel went to the basement. Police were concerned about the welfare of the little boy during long periods of silence from the child.
Daniel began talking in the past tense about how much he had loved his son. ''He would not let us talk to Noah. We were fearful,” said Ray.
With cameras dropped down into the basement the SWAT team could see that Daniel put his gun down. At that time they shot him with beanbags in hopes to bring him down, get to the child and restrain Daniel.
“Normally, it would knock someone down however, he is a large man,” said Ray.
After a misfire with one Metro SWAT member’s gun, another officer shot and struck Daniel in the head. The single bullet to the head fractured Tice’s skull. He has since been through surgery and is expected to make a full recovery.
Police are waiting to hear the original 911 tape. There have been some technical problems and officials are trying to retrieve the tape.
Wood stated on the 911 call she made that she had been afraid that something would happen.
Daniel’s brother lives out of state. He is a truck driver and was in the New England states when he received the word about Daniel and Brandi. He was so distraught that police took him to the hospital and would not let him behind the wheel of the truck.
For the past four years Brandi worked at Community Caregivers, a local home healthcare provider. Brandi wanted to be a nurse someday to provide a better income for her family.
According to police there was a history of domestic arguments and some had ended with Tice's arrest.
The company has set up a fund at all Huntington bank branches to help the Tice children. The children are staying with Brandi's mother.
Ray stated that the Summit County Sheriff’s Department, the Metro SWAT team and Springfield’s Police and Fire Department’s were a big help in the situation.
“I can’t thank them enough for their help,” Ray said. “I think in today’s world with the economy the way it is and people losing jobs, it is causing hardships and pushing people to the limit. I think we are going to see more of this kind of thing,” Ray stated.
