KILLEEN (October 26, 2009)—Joseph Duane Franklin, 27, who twice eluded officers in Killeen and Fort Hood who tried to stop him after he was reported to be suicidal and then later shot himself in the parking lot of a Killeen church has died, police said Monday.

Franklin was pronounced dead just before 7:45 a.m. Sunday, police said.

Killeen police received a report at about 1 p.m. Saturday that Franklin, who was driving a black Ford 500, was threatening to kill himself.

Thirty minutes later, an officer spotted the car in the area of Clear Creek Road, but Franklin was able to get away before she could stop him, police said.

At 2:15 p.m., a game warden on Fort Hood made another attempt to stop the vehicle, but Franklin driver again managed to elude authorities.

Forty-five minutes later, at about 3 p.m. another officer spotted the car in the parking lot of the Church of the Nazarene in the 900 block of Stagecoach Road, police said.

As he got out of his patrol car to check on the vehicle, he heard what sounded like a muffled gunshot, police said.

Killeen’s Tactical Response Unit was dispatched to the scene and after attempts to make contact with the driver officers approached and discovered that Franklin had shot himself once in the head, but that he was still breathing.

Franklin was taken first to Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center and then was flown to Scott & White Hospital in Temple where he died Sunday morning.

No one was at the church at the time of the incident, according to a statement issued by Associate Pastor Matt Thompson, who said, “Our hearts and prayers go out to the gentleman involved and his family.”

Vehicles that were parked in the church’s lot belonged to sponsors who accompanied children who went to an out-of-town event in a church van, Thompson said.

Plans were made to drop the children off at their homes, Thompson said.

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