BROOKSHIRE (August 19, 2009)—Kidnapped Katy ISD police officer Rachel Hillsman, 24, was safe Wednesday night and her ex-boyfriend, Julio Reyes, 38, who was also a Katy ISD officer, was dead after a standoff at a home in Brookshire outside of Houston, not far from the home Hillsman and her two children share.

KHOU-TV quoted police sources as saying that Hillsman ran out of the vacant home in which she had been held captive and was ushered to a waiting ambulance just after 7 p.m. Wednesday.

The sources said Reyes shot himself to death.

Earlier Wednesday, authorities surrounded the home after Reyes fired at search teams that were looking in the area.

Reyes fired as DPS SWAT Team members and Texas Rangers checked out a broken window at around 1 p.m. Wednesday in a home that’s under construction in northeast Brookshire, the DPS said.

Reyes fired at least one shot at the officers, the DPS said, and grabbed Hillsman to use her as a shield.

The SWAT Team attempted to break through the door of the house as Reyes backed up a staircase, holding Hillsman in front of him as a shield, the DPS said.

Reyes, however, fired through the door and officers backed off to begin negotiating with Reyes.

The negotiations, involving DPS and Houston Police Department SWAT Team officers continued until early evening when Hillsman was freed, the DPS said.

Investigators said Reyes abducted Hillsman in front of her two young children Tuesday morning in Brookshire, which is about 40 miles west of Houston.

Shortly after Hillsman's abduction, officials launched a statewide manhunt and established roadblocks in the Brookshire area.

Katy ISD spokesman Steve Stanford told KHOU that Reyes has been with the district police department since May of 1999.

Hillsman had been on the district’s force since January 2006.