Man accused of weekend abduction dies in Wisconsin: media

[March 24, 2015]  (Reuters) - A man accused of abducting a woman from a southeastern Wisconsin hospital on Sunday and then abandoning her and fleeing following a gunfight with police died on Monday evening, local broadcaster WISN-TV in Milwaukee reported.

Stantavious Sillas, 20, was on the run for nearly a day before police found footprints in the snow leading to his hiding spot in some bushes in Mount Pleasant village, Racine County Sheriff's Office said on its Facebook page.

He shot himself with a handgun as police closed in on him and was taken to a Milwaukee hospital for treatment, it said.

Reuters could not independently confirm the report. Representatives for the police department could not be immediately reached.

The hunt for Sillas began on Sunday afternoon after a woman was taken from Lakeview Specialty Hospital and Rehab in Waterford, about 30 miles (48 km) southwest of Milwaukee, the Racine Journal Times reported.

Sillas was accused of shooting at a policeman on Sunday in a grocery store parking lot in Union Grove, Wisconsin, where he was spotted with the woman he is suspected of abducting, the Mount Pleasant Sheriff's Office said.

After exchanging shots with officers, Sillas fled, leaving the woman behind, the office said. The deputy was not wounded.

The sheriff's office did not disclose what connection, if any, Sillas had with the woman he is accused of abducting.

Classes were canceled on Monday at several Racine County schools because of the search for Sillas, authorities said.

(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

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