Man found dead after shooting at New Hanover police

NEW HANOVER — A 50-year-old man was found dead Saturday morning inside a house that was on fire — a fire that started after the man shot at police Friday night, police said.

New Hanover police issued a news release announcing that Robert Ray Wagner was found hours after he shot at officers who responded to a report of a domestic disturbance.

It all started around 8pm on Friday when police arrived in the 2000 block of Little Road in the Perkiomenville area.

When police arrived, Wagner “began firing multiple times at the responding officers. The officers hid and called in additional units,” the release said.

The Montgomery County SWAT team evacuated the trapped officers and then worked through the night into Saturday morning trying to resolve the incident peacefully.

A fire started at the site around 6 a.m. Saturday and was extinguished by New Hanover Volunteer Fire and Rescue.

“After examining the scene, the body of the suspect was located,” Police Chief Kevin McKeon said in a statement.

No further information on the cause of death was available early Sunday morning.

“On behalf of the New Hanover Township Board of Supervisors, we would like to extend our sincere thanks to our police officers, our surrounding police departments, the west and central Montgomery County SWAT teams, our fire company, and the many other surrounding fire companies, the county fire department, the ambulance . companies,” McKeon said in a press release.

He added: “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family as well because, regardless of the situation, we lost a member of our community this morning.”