POLICE: Man In Lake Shore Drive Standoff, 'I'm Not Coming Out Alive'

A Georgia man wanted in connection to his wife’s killing reportedly told police that he was heavily armed and that he wasn’t coming out alive during a tense eight-hour standoff that shut down Lake Shore Drive for almost eight hours on Sunday.

Chicago Police still wouldn’t confirm if the man that led them on a high-speed chase from south suburban Harvey to the city’s North Side was Joseph Andrew Felton Jr., 43, the same man being sought in a Henry County, GA, murder investigation late Sunday evening.

LISTEN TO THE STATEMENT BY CHICAGO POLICE.

“It’s an active investigation,” Chicago Police News Affairs spokesman Adam Collins said from Town Hall Dist. 19 in Lake View.

Felton’s siblings told Chicago Breaking News that the man holed up inside a smashed Chrysler 300 near Lake Shore Drive and Fullerton was indeed the man suspected of killing his wife, Sheray Latriest Felton.

Sheray was found dead in the couple’s home in Hampton, GA, on Saturday.  

Earlier Sunday, Collins said, reading from a prepared statement from Chicago Police Bureau Chief of Patrol Wayne Gulliford, Henry County Sheriff’s Police issued a law enforcement bulletin alerting police in the Chicago area that a murder suspect with a history of violent tendencies may be in the area.

Around 12:24 p.m. Sunday, Harvey Police, who had been given a description of the suspect’s car and GPS location, initiated a pursuit when Felton attempted to flee. Chicago Police joined the chase, which took police and suspect northbound on the Dan Ryan, to Lake Shore Drive.

The car crashed in the northbound lane of Lake Shore Drive near Fullerton Avenue around 1:15 p.m. Police cleared the Lincoln Park Zoo and shut down the adjacent bike trail.

For almost nine hours on Sunday, Lake Shore Drive’s northbound lanes were closed from Monroe to Fullerton. The southbound lanes were closed from Bryn Mawr and Fullerton, causing traffic and CTA buses to be diverted for most of the day.

During the pursuit, the suspect’s car struck several vehicles, injuring a Chicago police officer. The suspect also rammed into a car, injuring two adults and a 10-year-old child. All four were treated and released at area hospitals for non-life threatening injuries and released, police said.

Negotiations ensued between SWAT team members and the man holed up in the wrecked car. According to police, the man told them he was heavily armed and wasn’t coming out alive. Felton’s sisters remained on the scene hoping to speak to their brother, reports said.

Collins, reading from the police’s written statement, said the suspect was taken into custody around 9:30 p.m. The suspect was taken away from the scene on a stretcher and transferred to an area hospital with “self-inflicted injuries,” according to police.

He also added that police used a "distraction device" to overtake the man in the car. 

Collins would not answer questions of earlier reports that police had opened fire on the man in the car moments after it had crashed.

“It’s all under investigation,” he said. “The scene is still active right now.”