The deceased male suspect who held a female hostage within a laundry room in building five of The Villages at Franklin Crossings Sunday afternoon has been identified.

Kent resident Christopher Carter, 27, died at the scene of the situation after being shot by an officer. 

The female hostage has been identified as Amber Weathers, 23, who was held hostage for nearly nine hours before being rescued by Metro SWAT.

Kent officers originally came to the complex to investigate suspicious persons at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, according to Lt. Mike Lewis of the Kent Police.

“When we tried to make contact with him in the laundry room, that’s when he barricaded himself,” Lewis said. “The male suspect then advised that he had taken a female hostage. At that point, we evacuated the building and we activated our regional Metro SWAT team.”

The situation turned into a hostage rescue operation at 9 p.m., according to Lewis, who reported later Monday afternoon that Weathers was uninjured and had been taken to University Hospital’s Portage Medical Center for evaluation after the incident.

Carter had been holding the Weathers with a knife, Lewis reported in a new release Monday morning. In a later new release, Lewis reported that an investigation by Kent Police lead to the discovery of an outstanding warrant for Weathers through another agency for a charge unrelated to yesterday’s incident.

Weathers is currently in custody at the Portage County Sheriff’s Office. There are no charges through the Kent Police Department.

Lewis said in the release that any relationship between the victim and the suspect will be part of the ongoing investigation.

Carter was convicted for heroin possession in 2013, and later convicted of forgery and receiving stolen property in 2015 after being arrested when he allegedly trespassed on private property and stole a credit card from a woman in the 900 block of East Crain Avenue, according to Kent City Police.

Jenna Kuczkowski is the general assignment editor, contact her at [email protected].