A Box Butte County Sheriff's deputy holds an assault rifle while?responding to a call of "shots fired, officer down" Tuesday, June 12, 2012, in Alliance, Neb. Authorities say an officer has been shot and a man is holding police at bay inside a store in the Nebraska Panhandle city of Alliance. The officer was shot in an arm and was taken to Box Butte General Hospital. No other shots have been reported, but the downtown business district has been blocked off. (AP Photo/Alliance Times-Herald, Mark Dykes)
A Box Butte County Sheriff's deputy holds an assault rifle while?responding to a call of "shots fired, officer down" Tuesday, June 12, 2012, in Alliance, Neb. Authorities say an officer has been shot and a man is holding police at bay inside a store in the Nebraska Panhandle city of Alliance. The officer was shot in an arm and was taken to Box Butte General Hospital. No other shots have been reported, but the downtown business district has been blocked off. (AP Photo/Alliance Times-Herald, Mark Dykes)
An Alliance police officer peeks around the corner while holding a drawn weapon Tuesday, June 12, 2012, in Alliance, Neb. Authorities say an officer has been shot and a man is holding police at bay inside a store in the Nebraska Panhandle city of Alliance. The officer was shot in an arm and was taken to Box Butte General Hospital. No other shots have been reported, but the downtown business district has been blocked off. (AP Photo/Alliance Times-Herald, Mark Dykes)
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) ? The Nebraska State Patrol says a 14-hour standoff with a gunman at a pharmacy in Alliance has ended and that the suspect is dead.
Patrol spokeswoman Deb Collins released a statement early Wednesday identifying the dead suspect as 27-year-old Andres Gonzales, of Alliance.
The statement does not say how Gonzales died but says the death was confirmed following a gunbattle inside the pharmacy with Nebraska State Patrol SWAT team members. None of the SWAT officers was injured.
Nebraska State Patrol Lt. Lance Rogers said earlier that the gunman is blamed for shooting and wounding two city police officers and a state patrol officer. None of their injuries is life-threatening.
The gunman also held a hostage for hours Tuesday in a western Nebraska drugstore. The hostage, identified Wednesday by Collins as pharmacy owner Charles Lierk, 62, of Alliance. Lierk managed to escape but was shot while getting away, Collins said. Lierk was taken to a local hospital where he was in stable condition, she said.
Rogers also said police found a body Tuesday in a nearby home but declined to say whether it is related to the standoff. Police don't know how that person died, Rogers said.
The standoff began Tuesday morning when the gunman entered the Thiele Pharmacy & Gifts in the center of downtown Alliance, a city of about 8,600 people.
"When we woke this morning in the best hometown in America, little did anyone in our wildest dreams foresee what would transpire today," said Mayor Fred Feldges.
Authorities said that officers responded after an apparent botched robbery.
Alliance Police Chief John Kiss said the gunman shot officers Matt Shannon, 35, and Kirk Felker, 43.
Shannon was treated at Box Butte General Hospital and released. Felker also was taken to the hospital and was recovering, Kiss said.
Later, state trooper Tim Flick, 37, was wounded. He remained hospitalized Tuesday night.
The standoff prompted police to close off several blocks of downtown Alliance throughout the day. Much of downtown remained blocked in Wednesday morning.
Ray Hielscher told the Lincoln Journal Star that he was watching the pharmacy from a Radio Shack across the street and saw the hostage run out about 5:30 p.m. Hielscher said he heard shots as the hostage ran out the front door and made it to safety to nearby police.
Earlier in the day, Dixie Nelson, director of the Alliance Chamber of Commerce, said she looked out the window of her organization's offices across the street from the pharmacy after an employee heard a gunshot.
"We had just come out of a staff meeting," Nelson said. "Our administrative assistant was walking up to the front, and she heard the shot."
Nelson said she saw a wounded police officer, who was shot in an arm while standing outside the pharmacy. It appeared the shot was fired through the glass on the store's door or window.
"He was shot in the arm. I could see. Either his upper forearm or bicep area," Nelson said.
Alliance is in the Nebraska Panhandle, about 370 miles west Omaha and 190 miles from Denver.
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Associated Press writers M. David Nichols in Chicago; Scott McFetridge and Nelson Lampe in Omaha; and Melanie Welte in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.
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