Murder suspect ends Avella standoff by killing himself
Police officers surround the house where murder suspect Dennis James Kern is in a standoff with police on Browntown Road in Avella Wednesday.
State police have brought in an armored Bobcat in case they need force to enter the Avella house where a homicide suspect was hiding.
Police surround 34 Browntown Road in Avella where they believed homicide suspect Dennis Kern was hiding Wednesday.
Dennis Kern
Police in tactical gear surrounded a home in Avella on Wednesday during a standoff with the husband of a murder victim.
A SWAT team prepares during a standoff a residence on Browntown Road in Avella on Wednesday.
A SWAT team prepares during a standoff a residence on Browntown Road in Avella on Wednesday.
A SWAT team prepares during a standoff a residence on Browntown Road in Avella on Wednesday.
Police officers at the scene where murder suspect Dennis James Kern was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Browntown Road in Avella Wednesday.
Police officers surround the house where murder suspect Dennis James Kern is in a standoff with police on Browntown Road in Avella Wednesday.
An armored Bobcat leaves the scene of a standoff with police on Browntown Road in Avella.
Trooper Matt Jardine speaks near a standoff scene Wednesday in Avella.
Police officers surround the house where murder suspect Dennis James Kern is in a standoff with police on Browntown Road in Avella Wednesday.
Police officers walk at the scene of a standoff in Avella Wednesday.
AVELLA – A state police tactical unit ended an eight-hour standoff with a murder suspect Wednesday by entering the victim’s house where he was hiding, only to find him dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
State police Trooper Matthew Jardine said a Special Emergency Response Team entered the house at 34 Browntown Road and found Dennis James Kern, 61, dead in a bedroom about 5 p.m.
“This is being investigated as a murder-suicide,” Jardine said near the scene of the standoff.
He said there were no other suspects in the shooting death a day earlier on a rural Jefferson Township Road of Carolin M. Kern, 68, who was shot and killed by a shotgun wound to the chest.
Carolin Kern was found dead in her car about noon on Meneely Road after it appeared to have been struck from behind by another vehicle.
Police immediately considered her estranged husband a person of interest in the case because of their rocky relationship and his arrest in March for threatening to shoot and kill her. That case was eventually closed in Washington County Court when he pleaded guilty to a summary charge.
Police said they discovered movement in the Browntown Road house after they went there about 9 a.m. to continue the homicide investigation.
Dozens of state troopers were then summoned to Avella to surround the house, and a department helicopter circled the scene throughout the standoff.
Police said they deployed an armored Bobcat equipped with a battering ram to the standoff scene as the situation intensified.
Two flash bangs were detonated about 2 p.m. in attempts to stun Dennis Kern into surrendering.
Neighbors who stayed in their houses reportedly said he responded to the loud noises by placing a mattress against a window.
An officer also was overheard using a loudspeaker, saying, “We have your house surrounded. Come out with your hands up now.”
Neighbors closest to the house were asked to leave the standoff area, police said.
“It was just too dangerous,” Jardine said.
The dark grey Chevrolet pickup truck Dennis Kern was driving at the time of the homicide was seen being hauled out of Avella on a flatbed after the fifth hour of the standoff began.
Jardine said police found the truck parked along a dirt road in Jefferson, not far from the homicide scene.
According to a Washington County coroner’s report, Dennis Kern was pronounced dead from a shotgun wound to his chest at 7:18 p.m. in a front bedroom of the Browntown Road home.
Carolin ern had an active protection-from-abuse order against her husband, and she filed for divorce in April, following an incident at 34 Browntown Road, according to court documents. Her PFA application said Dennis Kern, who has had recent addresses in Independence and Cross Creek townships, told her that “he should just shoot me” and then he went to get guns.
A two-year protection-from-abuse order prohibited him from having contact with her and ordered him out of the residence. It also ordered him to relinquish his firearms to the Washington County sheriff’s office.
He also was awaiting an arraignment on burglary and theft charges filed in August. Kern was charged in September in that case after he was accused of breaking into a barn owned by his son, William Ralph Woodburn, and stealing items including a chain saw and toolboxes. During the police investigation, Carolin Kern told authorities the items belonged to her daughter’s fiancé. She also said Kern had been evicted from the property since May 26 when he was served with the PFA, according to court documents.
Assistant Editor Linda Ritzer and staff writers Francesca Sacco and David Singer contributed to this report.