Deputies identify man who shot self during traffic stop

Published 5:10 pm Friday, November 18, 2016

Officials have identified the man who shot and killed himself during a traffic stop on Thursday as Michael Anthony Griffin, 25.

Griffin was from New Castle, Penn. and was wanted on three felony warrants out of New Castle.

A Jefferson County Sheriff’s deputy stopped a westbound vehicle just before 5 p.m. on Interstate 10 at the 839 mile marker for a traffic violation, Deputy Marcus McLellan said in a press release.

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The man got out of his vehicle as the deputy’s asked, and while the deputy was identifying him, the man ran back to his vehicle and got a handgun. He shot himself inside the vehicle in front of the deputy.

The man was brought to St. Elizabeth Hospital in Beaumont where he was pronounced dead.

The man was wanted out of New Castle, Penn., on several felony charges.

No one else was hurt and the incident is under investigation.