Akron Beacon Journal (OH)
Author: Gina Mace, Special to the Beacon Journal
Dateline: BARBERTON Marc A. Ross asked his dad for a favor before he killed himself early Wednesday during a standoff with police.
Russell Ross said his son told him he had a gun to his head and he wasn't going back to prison.
''He said, 'Dad, remember I love you,' '' Russ Ross said. ''He has an 18-year-old son. He said, 'Try to straighten him out. Try to get him to stay straight.' ''
And then Russ Ross said the phone line went dead.
When the phone rang again, Russ Ross said it was the police negotiator telling him that his 38-year-old son was dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Marc Ross was pronounced dead at Akron City Hospital at 9:30 a.m. - 3 1/2 hours after shooting himself while barricaded in a bedroom at a home in the 1400 block of Ettle Drive.
Barberton police said Marc Ross retreated to the bedroom after officers arrived to arrest him around 1:20 a.m.
Russell Ross said at one point during the five-hour standoff, his son admitted to robbing drug dealers of money and drugs.
''He said, 'Dad, if they find out what I've been doing, I'm going back to prison,' '' Russell Ross said. ''He said he finds out a guy is dealing drugs, he's been beating the hell out of them, taking their money and taking their drugs.''
About three hours before the standoff began, Doylestown police were called about a home invasion on North Portage Street.
Doylestown Police Chief Brian Dressler said one man went into the home with a gun. The man fled with a purse and a wallet.
Dressler said the home's occupants identified Marc Ross as the robber.
''We're still sorting it out,'' Dressler said. ''The suspicion is he knew it was a place where he could purchase drugs, and he went in there to take them at gunpoint.''
An alert went out to area police departments to be on the lookout for the Chevy Silverado seen fleeing the scene.
A Barberton police officer spotted the vehicle pulling into an Ettle Drive driveway.
Authorities say that when officers knocked on the door of the home and asked for Marc Ross, Robert L. White, 43, of Prospect Street, reportedly said he wasn't there.
Police found David P. White, 38, of Ettle Drive, and Marc Ross' wife, Dana M. Ross, 37, of Ettle Drive, hiding in a bathroom.
William J. White, 40, of Douglass Avenue, came out of the bedroom where Marc Ross was hiding. Authorities say he told police he didn't know the man who was still in the bedroom.
All four face one count each of obstructing official business.
Ross said he knows his son was no angel. Marc Ross spent five years in prison for robbery, burglary and failure to comply with the orders of a peace officer. He was released in 2007.
In 2008, he was found guilty of vandalism and aggravated possession of drugs in Summit County Common Pleas Court.
Judge Judith Hunter placed him on probation for three years.
Ross was wanted on warrants for violating both his probation and prison parole.
Russell Ross said he pleaded with his son to just give up.
'' 'Dad, I can't come out,' '' Ross said his son told him. '' 'If they put me back in prison, I'm dead in six months. I can't go back. I'll end it here rather than go back.' ''
Ross said he has raised eight children and has already buried one. A stepson died in a construction accident 14 years ago.
That death affected Marc, Russell Ross said.
''He went on drugs, and this is what it's done to him,'' Russell Ross said. ''I guess it's all over now.''
Copyright (c) 2009 Akron Beacon Journal
