The man suspected of murdering his 18-year-old girlfriend after they robbed an Alabama hotel at gunpoint killed himself in a police standoff in Wisconsin.
Gary Eubanks Jr, 25, died of a self-inflicted gunshot to the head after four hours of negotiations with officers who cornered him at a residence in Milwaukee at around 4pm Wednesday, authorities announced Thursday.
Police confirmed that Eubanks Jr was responsible for the murder of Mississippi teen Baylee Wall, whose body was found in Cincinnati, Ohio, on October 23.
Eubanks Jr had been on the run for 10 days after he allegedly forced Wall to help him rob the Microtel Inn in Daphne, Alabama, on October 21.
Gary Eubanks Jr, 25, (pictured) died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after four hours of negotiations with police in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, authorities announced Thursday
Police confirmed that Eubanks Jr was responsible for the murder of Mississippi teen Baylee Wall (pictured), whose body was found in Cincinnati, Ohio, on October 23
Authorities located Eubanks Jr at the residence in Wisconsin at around 4pm Wednesday
Police initially did not confirm the identity of the man killed in Wednesday’s standoff, saying only that he had committed ‘very serious, heinous crimes’ and was wanted in Alabama and Ohio.
News outlets were quick to assume that it was Eubanks Jr, of Theodore, Alabama. The confirmation came in Thursday morning.
Authorities had been hunting Eubanks Jr for over a week after the hotel heist.
Surveillance video showed Wall entering the hotel on the night of the armed robbery and asking the receptionist about room rates before leaving.
Eubanks Jr was seen walking in to the lobby moments after Wall left. He held the receptionist at gunpoint and demanded cash.
The pair fled the scene in Wall’s 2015 black four-door Volkswagen Passat with license plate JGE1791.
Two days after the robbery, Wall’s body was found behind a baseball field at Woodward High School in Cincinnati.
She wasn’t identified as the victim until five days later because there wasn’t any official form of identification on her body.
Police described her death as ‘suspicious’ and said it was being investigated as a homicide.
Detectives have not confirmed the cause of death, but sources told WLWT she was shot in the head.
Police said surveillance footage showed Wall and Eubanks Jr at the Microtel Inn in Daphne, Alabama, on the night of the October 21 armed robbery
Wall allegedly entered the hotel and asked the receptionist about room rates and then left before Eubanks Jr came in and demanded money at gunpoint
Wall and Eubanks Jr are seen in driver’s license photos released after the armed robbery
Loved ones have fiercely defended Wall in the days since police announced they were investigating her death as a homicide on Monday – charging that Eubanks Jr compelled her to commit the armed robbery reminiscent of infamous crime couple Bonnie and Clyde.
‘There is no way that she willingly participated in any of those events, and we have proof that that is the case,’ Wall’s stepmother, Angela Wall, told AL.com.
‘I wish we could have seen the signs before it was too late.’
She said Eubanks Jr was ‘abusive’ and ‘not right for Baylee’, and that he lied to her and her family about his age, claiming he was only 19.
Loved ones have fiercely defended Wall in the days since police announced they were investigating her death as a homicide on Monday – charging that Eubanks Jr compelled her to commit the armed robbery. The teen from Mississippi is pictured with her two-year-old daughter
Wall’s relatives described her as ‘just your typical 18-year-old girl’ and said they couldn’t believe she would willingly be involved with an armed robbery
Wall’s stepfather, Steven Tillman, told Fox Cincinnati that she and Eubanks Jr began dating in August and that she had recently sent a photo to her friend showing her with a busted lip.
Tillman said that his stepdaughter told the friend she was ‘scared [and] wanting to come home’.
He expressed shock over the idea that Wall, who lived in Moss Point, Mississippi and was the mother of a two-year-old girl, would be involved with someone violent and that she would participate in an armed robbery.
‘I still can’t believe it. I really can’t on either issue,’ Tillman said. ‘That’s not how she was raised. That’s not how she was.’
He added: ‘She was a very outgoing person. Loved to laugh and you know, just your typical 18-year-old girl.’
A woman named Erin Vinson claimed that the couple had been staying at her apartment before Wall’s death.
‘If I had any idea she was going to be murdered two weeks later, I would have never let her out of my sight,’ Vinson told Local12.
She said that Wall told her that Eubanks Jr had been violent to her.
‘We knew it was unhealthy, but obviously what can you do to someone who is 18 years old to say go back home to your parents who care about you,’ she said.
‘Now I feel like I have some responsibility in the fact that I was the last person to see her and that I could have potentially saved her from that situation.’
On Wednesday evening, Wall’s aunt, Susan Speaker, announced Eubanks Jr’s death on Facebook.
‘Justice for Baylee is served!’ she wrote in all-caps.
Another relative, Amber Wall, posted: ‘Praise God they got him!’
On Wednesday night, Wall’s aunt, Susan Speaker, announced Eubanks Jr’s death on Facebook
Another relative, Amber Wall, posted: ‘Praise God they got him!’
Baylee’s stepmother Angela Wall hit out at trolls attacking the teen in a Facebook post Monday (pictured) as news emerged that she had been murdered
Hours after news of Baylee’s death broke on Monday, her stepmother spoke out against trolls she said had been spamming the teen’s Facebook page.
‘So it’s already starting with rude/negative comments. People are going to judge her for one stupid act that we don’t even know the full details of,’ Angela Wall wrote in a Facebook post.
‘Regardless, she was only 18 and still our daughter. So please everyone share something positive about Baylee Wall so people remember her how she really was, and for all the stalkers coming to her page can see she was truly loving person and was loved.
‘Baylee was always a fighter and hard headed but that is what got her through all of this.
We love you BayBay and will forever be in our hearts.’
Angela included a pair of photos of Baylee, one ‘first day of school’ snap and another from her high school graduation day.
In a later post, the stepmother shared a link to a GoFundMe campaign set up by Baylee’s uncle, Tim Wall, to help cover funeral costs.
The campaign has raised more than $2,180 toward its $5,000 goal as of Thursday morning.