Autopsy: Suspect in W. Bloomfield officer's slaying killed self - Fox 2 News Headlines

Autopsy results confirm Ricky Coley, who is accused of killing West Bloomfield officer Patrick O'Rourke, took his own life.  Fox 2 also spoke with the excavator who tore down part of the house during the standoff with police.

Neighbors have come to lay flowers at the place where the officer was shot.  However, the most noticeable thing in that neighborhood Tuesday was police officers coming to pay their respects.  It was heartbreaking to watch the officers looking through the windows, touching the doors and just hanging their heads down.

The standoff was dramatic, but the man who drove the excavator told us it was the only way to get the job done.  Was Al Doren afraid he would be shot?

"No."

One o'clock Monday afternoon, Doren got the call to help West Bloomfield Police with their most important mission ever.  The Independence Township firefighter packed up his 50,000 pound excavator and trekked an hour to the quiet suburb.

"They had a point of access.  We walked up the street and looked at it from one angle because we didn't want to get, obviously, shot at," he explained.  "When I got there, I put a bullet proof vest on and I had a tactical helmet, and then we also put some armor on the outside of the excavator.  We strapped that on.  It was ballistic armor, and then I had a radio and kept contact with command."

At this point the standoff had lasted more than 17 hours.  50-year-old Ricky Nelson Coley had barricaded himself inside his 4,000 square foot house.  He allegedly fired shots through a door killing O'Rourke.

Throughout the day, there were long periods of silence, then a hail of bullets.

"We didn't know if he was alive or not.  We (took) the precaution and they were concerned for my safety, and I (trusted) them," Doren told us.

He said police had plenty of equipment, but nothing that reached the second floor.  That's where he came into play.

"We opened up a wall and then opened up a second wall inside so they could get their robot up in there so nobody else had to come in the line of fire," Doren said.

Ricky Coley was found an hour later.  The autopsy report from the Oakland County Medical Examiner said Coley killed himself and suffered a gunshot to the head.

Neighbors watching on live television couldn't believe their eyes.

"I just kept thinking of Rick and how proud he was of his home, and then to see a backhoe ripping his house apart and the role that he played in all of this, it's just a startling contrast," one said.

However, divorce papers recently filed by Coley's wife describe him as an abusive man inflicting physical and emotional pain on his wife and threatening to abduct the couple's seven-year-old son.  He was in a mountain of debt and under investigation for allegedly pocketing more than $300,000.

Still, in the center of it all is the officer who was killed, the 39-year-old father of four.

"Final encounter by Officer O'Rourke was an act of heroism.  It was to protect us and our neighborhood, to even help and assist Rick if he was in trouble, and for it to end this way is just disturbing," the neighbor said.