By DAVID DISHNEAU, Associated Press Writer
DUNDALK, Md. (AP) - Police were willing to wait for slaying suspect Joseph Palczynski to release his three hostages.
The hostages weren't.
With Palczynski sleeping on the living-room sofa, Lynn Whitehead and Andy McCord climbed out a first-floor bedroom window late Tuesday, leaving their 12-year-old son asleep on the kitchen floor.
Palczynski, accused of kidnapping Whitehead's daughter and killing four people before the standoff began, died minutes later after police stormed the apartment and shot him to death. The little boy was rescued.
``I'm just so glad it ended up how it did. My family's safe,'' Mary McCord, Lynn Whitehead's sister, told WJZ-TV. ``And now we can all sleep, go on with our life.''
Her husband, David McCord, said Andy McCord had called during the weekend and said: ''`Dave, I love everybody,' he said, `and tell mom - tell her I love her too, because I don't know if I'm going to make it or not.' And he was crying his eyes out.''
Palczynski, a 31-year-old unemployed electrician with a history of mental illness, stormed into the apartment on Friday. Police negotiations had continued even after shots were fired out of the apartment over the weekend.
``We were willing to stay as long as it took,'' police spokesman Bill Toohey said afterward.
Whitehead fled first and McCord followed several minutes later. Once they left, police said they had no choice but to enter.
``They knew there was one 12-year-old boy in there, and a man who had murdered four people,'' Toohey said.
Palczynski was asleep on a sofa with a gun on his lap under a blanket when police burst in through a living room window, Toohey said. Palczynski ``began to sit up, and tactical officers shot and killed him,'' police spokeswoman Vickie Warehime said.
She said two officers fired shots, but the number of shots was not immediately known.
Attorney David Henninger, a longtime friend of Palczynski who was involved in the negotiations, said he knew the end was coming.
``I knew it would end today one way or another,'' Henninger said. ``I was hoping it would end in a better way, but the hostages were safe.''
Palczynski was arrested March 4 on assault charges for allegedly beating his girlfriend, Tracy Whitehead, when she tried to move out of their apartment. He was released the next day on $7,500 bond despite a lengthy criminal record.
The killings began March 7, when police say Palczynski abducted Tracy Whitehead at gunpoint and fatally shot George and Gloria Shenk, the couple who had sheltered her. Outside the Shenk home, he allegedly shot and killed David Meyers, 42, a neighbor who tried to help Whitehead during the struggle.
Whitehead escaped the next day by running to a police officer who happened to be at a motel where Palczynski took her.
Also that day, police said, Jennifer McDonel was fatally shot and a 2-year-old boy was wounded when they drove by as Palczynski fired shots during an attempted carjacking.
Palczynski then led police on a manhunt for more than a week before surfacing in this Baltimore suburb. Police said his main demand during the standoff was to speak to Tracy Whitehead.
In a phone call to WJZ-TV on Sunday that the station aired for the first time Tuesday night, Palczynski said police wouldn't let him talk to her.
``I love her dearly. I did not mean to kill those people,'' Palczynski said. ``I've been begging for them to just allow me to talk to Tracy. I will surrender peacefully. I won't kill anybody else, I won't hurt anybody else. I did not mean to do any of this.''
Ecstatic neighbors let out a cheer when they learned the standoff was over.
Melissa Haley, who was trapped in her house with six other adults, two teen-agers, three young children and three dogs, was getting ready for bed so she would be ready to go to work for the first time since last week.
``I guess I'm just worried about what my boss would think if I didn't come in,'' Haley said. ``Now we can go to the grocery store and get a little normalcy back.''