The married couple killed in a gunfight with police after stealing a semi-truck and taking its driver captive in Ohio were drug addicts who had gone on the run before, a family member says.
Rodney Helman, 54, and his wife Elaine, 51, were named by police as the couple who were involved in a dramatic police chase and hostage situation in London on Wednesday morning. Now Rodney’s younger brother Richard has revealed his sibling said he wanted to go out in a blaze of glory.
According to the DailyMail.com, public records show both of the Helmans had a lengthy rap sheet. Mostly it included minor offenses including theft, possessing criminal tools, obstruction – and, in Rodney’s case, having prohibited items in a detention center.
Richard claims just last winter, Rodney was involved in another traffic stop during which he pushed his mother out of a car in a bid to evade the cops. And just two weeks earlier, Rodney is said to have made an ominous confession to a cousin.
Richard said: “He told our cousin that he’ll never go back to jail, that he’d die before he goes back to jail. So I believe they had it planned that if they got cornered again, they were going to go out by suicide by cops.”
Cousin Regina Crosley also says the couple had mentioned “suicide by cops”. She said the couple knew they had warrants for their arrest in Ohio.
Crosley claims the pair were worried they would not be able to get painkillers behind bars. And says the couple usually ordered from the black market.
However, she believes they would not have intended to hurt the driver. Speaking to WDTNTV, Crosley said: “I know in my heart they were not trying to hurt him. I know that they probably protected him from really getting harmed, it’s just unfortunate that he happened to be in the vehicle that they got into.”
Richard says Rodney and his wife would often lie about their identity, regularly using the names of family members. When pulled over in London, they gave the names Rodney and Barbara Taylor, saying they came from Kentucky, which was the name of Richard and Rodney’s late stepfather and mother.
The incident in Ohio started at around 1am local time on Wednesday, when the couple were pulled over in a Dodge Caravan for having no rear lights. It was then the officer discovered the car had no registration papers.
As he tried to identify them, they fled from the scene to a truck stop. Ditching the car and decamping, they took off towards a semi, with the officer believing he saw a gun.
Footage released by London Police shows a man trying to escape from the car, with his trousers around his ankles, which causes him to trip.
A London Police spokesman said: “As the officer attempted to deploy a taser, the male suspect fell and pointed a handgun at the officer. The suspect was able to flee to a nearby semi-tractor with no trailer. He and a female suspect then fled in the semi-truck with an occupant of the truck. As they fled the truck stop the suspect struck a London Police cruiser. No officers were injured.”
The pair headed towards Montgomery County, just off Interstate 70, where a police chase ended on the access road to the Dayton International Airport. At around 7.30am, following negotiations, police attempted to remove the truck driver.
However, they say they were shot at. A spokesman added: “As troopers approached, they were fired upon. Troopers returned fire, striking both the male and female suspects.
“The hostage was removed from the truck to a safe area with minor injuries. Troopers re-approached the semi to take both the male and female into custody. Both suspects were transported to the Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton with life-threatening injuries.”
Both Rodney and Elaine Helman were pronounced dead in hospital.
