Standoff at U.S. 19 motel ends in arrest

PALM HARBOR - A man suspected of killing an Ohio police officer was captured Wednesday night at a motel on U.S. 19.

Ohio authorities suspected Martin Louis Koliser Jr., 30, might head to the Tampa Bay area, based on several phone calls he made to people in the Clearwater area.

Detectives with the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the FBI tracked down Koliser at a Knights Inn at U.S. 19 and Nebraska Avenue. Police negotiators with a SWAT team convinced Koliser to surrender about 10 p.m.

Koliser is suspected in Tuesday's killing of Youngstown, Ohio, police Officer Michael Hartzell, 26. The officer was shot while checking the license plate of a car that matched the description of a suspect's vehicle in a shooting. Hartzell was shot twice in the head and once in the bulletproof vest over his chest, police said.

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