Shelbyville June 3- There was a flurry of activity both inside and outside of the Bigfoot convenience store near I-74 and State Road 44 outside Shelbyville a little after 6:30a.m. on Thursday, the 19th hour of a standoff where a gunman was holding a woman hostage. There was a loud sound which witnesses described as like an explosion.
Shortly after that a woman could be seen running away from the building between two men. They appeared to be headed for the State Police communications van.
About ten minutes later an Indiana State Police spokesperson approached reporters who were being several hundred yards from the scene and said he couldn't explain what had happened and that more information would be released in two hours.
Earlier, the man whom some media organizations have identified as Dennis McAninch, 34, of Cincinnati, told police he did not plan to harm the woman.
It all began on Wednesday when police chased McAninch and a passenger in the car he was driving until they pulled into a Bigfoot store parking lot at about 10:45 a.m. The driver fired at officers as he dashed into the store, but police were able to apprehend the passenger, they said. No one was injured.
Police had also spoken to the hostage whom they say was not injured inside the store near the intersection of Interstate 74 and Indiana 44.
Indiana State Police Sgt. Dave Bursten said the hostage situation came after police in nearby Batesville began pursuing a car carrying two men they suspected of burglary, chasing them for about 35 miles along I-74.
Other officers stretched spike stop sticks across I-74 to try to stop the car, but the driver dodged the sticks and entered the median, driving west in the eastbound lanes of I-74 for a short distance.
The car eventually turned around and exited onto Indiana 44, where witnesses said it broadsided a pickup truck and then pulled into the Bigfoot's parking lot.
Victoria Felts of Rushville was pumping gas when the gunman drove the damaged car into the parking lot.
"He didn't put it in park because it was rolling when he got out," she said. "He started firing at the police. He went into the store, and the passenger he had gave himself up."
