LIBERTY TOWNSHIP, Ohio – A 10-year-old Ohio boy who was held hostage for 30 hours last weekend is being hailed as a hero.
On Friday night, Sincere Trammell said he and his mother were home alone inside their Liberty Township apartment. He said he was in another room while his mother went into the kitchen to cook.
"When I walked in there, I saw him having a gun to my mom's head and kept saying give me $10,000 now," Sincere said.
Sincere didn't recognize the man at first and said the man had his coat zipped up to his nose.
"He chased me in a room because he thought I had a phone, and then she ran out the door," Sincere said.
The fourth-grader said his mother had no other choice but to run and try and get help for them. That is what sparked the standoff.
The suspect, 31-year-old Donald Gazaway, is a longtime family friend. Trammell said she has known him since he was a toddler, and he recently came back into their lives.
Sincere said Gazaway had four guns. Police said Gazaway fired between 20 and 30 rounds at them.
"You can feel a little wind from the gun, and one shell popped out on me," Sincere said.
Trammell was brought in to talk to Gazaway.
"They did let me do a lot of negotiating with him," Trammell said.
"He kept saying in the car that he was going to let me go, regardless," Sincere said. "I convinced him to turn himself in because he was going to kill himself and he kept crying. He was saying that he had two options, and then he said he was going to kill himself or turn himself in, and he kept saying he might kill himself, so I told him how I was feeling. I wouldn't like that, and he has two daughters who would feel bad."