Authorities say a man kidnapped his estranged wife at gunpoint early Friday morning and then shot himself at a nearby motel after she escaped.
John Henry Jones, 36, was taken to a local hospital after the shooting where he later died.
The woman told deputies that Jones broke into her home on Jenkins Road and forced her at gunpoint to leave with him in her vehicle. But not far from the home, the woman jumped out of the vehicle and escaped, Lea said.
A concerned citizen stopped to help the woman, and Jones then rammed his vehicle into the citizen’s, Lea said. Jones fled before law enforcement could arrive.
The woman recieved only minor injuries, Lea said.
Deputies and Chattanooga police found Jones at the Town Place Suites on McCutcheon Road after “an extensive manhunt,” Lea said.
“Before deputies could take Jones into custody, he intentionally shot himself,” Lea said in a release. The shooting call came in at about 9:45 a.m., records show.
Lea declined to release the woman’s name and said the investigation was still ongoing.
In a video posted to Facebook, local Jason Walker said his son, Ian Kibby, was the concerned citizen who stopped to help the woman. He said Kibby saw the woman on the side of the road while he was driving to work at the Volkswagen plant around 5 a.m.
The video, which Walker shot in a tow yard on Benton Ave, shows a white Ford with a crumpled front right bumper and blood on the passenger handle.
“This guy in an SUV rammed this car a couple of times and drove off,” Walker says in the video.