Louisiana murder suspect found at Columbia motel, taken into custody after standoff

Early Friday morning, Richland County Sheriff’s Department’s Fugitive Task Force took a murder suspect wanted out of Louisiana into custody, according to the department.

The task force, along with the U.S. Marshals and the State Law Enforcement Division agents, served a search warrant for 26-year-old Kelzon Terrel Clark at the Motel 6 on the 7500 block of Nates Road around 7 a.m., the sheriff’s department said.

Clark barricaded himself inside of a room and spoke with negotiators for more than an hour, the sheriff’s department said in a statement. When deputies “deployed gas in an attempt to apprehend” him, Clark tried to flee through a broken window. He began cutting himself with a piece of broken glass when police tried taking him into custody, the statement said.

Clark was taken to the hospital after police took him into custody, the sheriff’s department said.