MONTVILLE TOWNSHIP, Ohio – A Montville Township woman died one day after her boyfriend shot her “almost execution-style” before he killed himself during a SWAT standoff, the Medina County coroner said.
The 45-year-old woman’s boyfriend Shawn Guillereault shot her in the right temple early Sunday at the home they shared on Stockbridge Drive at Sarah Lane, Medina County Coroner Lisa Deranek said during a news conference Monday afternoon. The bullet lodged in the lower part of her brain.
The woman died Monday afternoon, police said. She had been on life support at Cleveland Clinic Akron General.
Investigators have not determined why Guillereault, 44, got into an argument with the woman before the shooting, Montville Township Police Chief Terry Grice said during the news conference. Guillereault barricaded himself in a basement when officers responded to his 911 call, and took his own life after a three-hour SWAT standoff.
Montville Township police officers first learned of the incident just before 12:45 a.m. when the woman’s daughter ran roughly a half-mile from the home to a McDonald’s on Wooster Pike, police said. The girl, who was unclothed, told McDonald’s employees that Guillereault sexually assaulted her in the home.
SWAT officers later rescued two other children from the home, who were unharmed. All three children who were inside the home will be staying with relatives, Grice said.
Cleveland.com is not naming the woman shot during the incident because doing so would identify the girl who was sexually assaulted.
Guillereault called 911 just after 1 a.m. to say he’d shot his girlfriend in the head, according to a recording of the call released Monday. Grice said during the news conference that Guillereault and the woman had been dating for seven years.
“It was a disagreement and it got out of control,” Guillereault said in the recording of the 911 call.
He told the dispatcher the shooting occurred in the garage, and initially intimated he may cooperate with officers when they arrived. But he became combative by the time the officers arrived, police said.
“I’m gonna go to jail, though. I did this,” Guillereault said in the recording of the 911 call.
When two Montville Township officers arrived, they found Guillereault in the garage beside the woman, who showed no signs of life. Guillereault first refused to move away from her and surrender, then ran into the home and barricaded himself inside, police said.
The officers initially believed the woman to be dead, and knew Guillereault was armed, so they were unable to enter the garage and take her to a hospital until shortly before 3 a.m., police said.
Officers also learned of the other two children in the home. SWAT officers used a ladder to rescue them from an upstairs bedroom just after 2:40 a.m., police said.
“It’s unfortunate that the actions of Shawn Guillereault caused this family to be put through such a traumatic situation,” Grice said.
SWAT officers deployed a robot into the residence and tried to negotiate with Guillereault, but he fatally shot himself sometime before the SWAT officers entered the home and found him dead at 4:30 a.m.
The woman had previously reported in 2014 that Guillereault had sexually assaulted another one of her relatives, according to police reports. The complaint did not result in any charges being filed against Guillereault, police said.
It was not immediately clear why a Montville Township prosecutor declined to charge Guillereault at the time.
Montville Township police had not been called to the Stockbridge Drive home for any prior incidents of domestic violence, police said Monday.
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