Dakota Steagall shoots dead his estranged girlfriend before kidnapping her baby and shooting himself dead in a domestic violence incident.
Dakota Steagall a 20 year old Ohio man has killed himself after allegedly shooting dead his estranged 22 year old girlfriend, Kaitlyn Carroll-Peak and kidnapping her seven week old baby.
Matters came to the fore when neighbors at the Brookwood Way Apartments in Mansfield, called police about a woman being chased by a man through the complex.
Gunshots were fired with the young mom found dead at the scene reported richlandsource.
Police said Dakota M. Steagall, 20, kidnapped her seven-week-old baby girl, with the suspect seeking to make his get-away.
Driving off in his girlfriend’s car, the boyfriend found himself surrounded by police around 11pm Wednesday night, on a U.S. 30 off-ramp 40 minutes away in Wooster.
Around 1am Thursday morning, a police negotiator ordered Dakota out of the car, but the man never exited his deceased girlfriend’s red Hyudai Elantra.
Police in SWAT gear then surrounded the car, where upon they found the suspect dead from an apparent suicide.
The baby was not inside the car. Police say the baby was found safe with family after Steagall had dropped her off with a family member in nearby Ashland.
A report via cleveland19 told of Steagall living with his father in the apartment complex where an argument between himself and Carroll Peak ensued before shooting the woman dead.
At one point, Steagall according to the man’s father called him to confess to the murder of Carroll Peak while on the run.
The father said his son was addicted to K2, a synthetic cannabinoid, which he believes influenced his son’s behavior.
Reflected the father, Phillip Steagall: ‘Dakota in a straight mind would not have this. Would never have happened. He was a very good kid’.
When asked him if his son had ever talked about hurting Connor-Peak, the father admitted that he had heard his son say, ‘he’d like to take her out in the woods’.
To date authorities have yet to say what caused Steagall to kill Carroll-Peak and kidnap her baby. Of question is to what degree the pair had known each other prior to the encounter and whether Steagall had purposefully targeted the woman.
Facebook posts showed both Steagall and his victim in constant communication, with the inference that they were likely romantically involved at one point.
During a Thursday afternoon press conference, Mansfield Police Chief Ken Coontz said hat Steagall was not the father of Carroll-Peak’s baby. Police described the incident between Steagall and Carroll Peak who the man may have or may have not still been romantically involved with as a domestic violence incident.
Reiterated Coontz: ‘Domestic violence is a horrible situation and something that we all have to take very seriously’.
Mansfield police say Steagall and Carroll-Peak had a history of domestic disputes over the last two years, including an incident in February of last year when Steagall was at the center of a stand-off with police at the same apartment complex.
That incident ended peacefully.
According to court records, Peak filed a protection order against Steagall in 2015 but it was dropped because she did not appear in court.
Police report details Dakota Steagall’s alleged threats to kill girlfriend and family from last year @cleveland19news pic.twitter.com/sHcFhsTG6n
— Dani Carlson (@DaniCarlsonTV) March 9, 2017
