The suspect in a Bensalem murder fled to his cousin’s house in Ohio, then shot himself as police closed in, reports say

A suspect in a shooting on Halloween in Bensalem that killed a 14 year old and wounded two others died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound as police in Ohio were closing in on him, according to police documents released Thursday.

Sean Hughes, 19, of Morrisville, shot himself on Nov. 2 after bailing out of a Hyundai Elantra that had been disabled by a spike strip laid out by officers from the Marysville Police Department, authorities said.

Hughes was wanted in connection with the Oct. 31 killing of Peter Romano, 14, who was struck in the chest by gunshot fired out of that Elantra after a group of about 30 teens had gathered in the parking lot of a shopping center on Bristol Pike.

Romano was pronounced dead at Jefferson Torresdale Hospital. Two others, 19 and 17, were wounded, but later treated and released. The motive for the shooting remains under investigation, according to prosecutors, who said some of the teens had been fighting before the shots were fired.

After the shooting, Hughes texted his cousin, Joshua Marquez, 25, asking if he could stay with him in Marysville, a suburb of Cleveland, according to police documents. Marquez, who previously lived in Levittown and North Philadelphia, told investigators that he recently moved to Marysville to live with his sister.

A spokesperson for the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office said there is no evidence that Marquez was present in Bensalem on the night of the fatal shooting.

Hughes drove overnight from Bensalem to Marysville, investigators said. As he traveled, police in Bensalem entered the Elantra into a national database of stolen cars — it had previously been reported stolen from Bristol Township.

» READ MORE: 14-year-old killed, 2 others shot in Bensalem

On Nov. 2, as Hughes and Marquez were driving to a grocery store, a license-plate reader mounted on a police car scanned the plate, and a Marysville officer began to pursue it, according to Police Chief Tony Brooks. During the pursuit, the officers learned that it was connected to the murder in Bensalem, Brooks said.

The Elantra weaved dangerously in and out of traffic, officers wrote in their incident reports, and slowed only after one of the pursuing officers threw down a spike strip. Still, the vehicle continued on along winding country back roads. It was later found abandoned in the middle of the road, near a field.

Marquez, who had been in the car’s passenger seat, fled into the field, but later yelled to the officers that he was giving up, according to the police report. He was taken into custody and charged with firearms violations after officers discovered a .38 caliber revolver in the field near where he surrendered.

(Marquez is unable to legally possess a gun due to two previous felony convictions for robbery in Bucks County.)

Other officers searching the field found Hughes, who had been shot once in the chin. A 9mm Sig Sauer handgun was found discarded near his body. He was pronounced dead at the scene, and an autopsy later determined he died by suicide.

» READ MORE: A Bensalem teen will face a county judge in a slaying prosecutors say he displayed over Instagram

After his arrest, Marquez told investigators about the texts he had exchanged with Hughes two days earlier. He said he was unaware that Hughes was a suspect in the Bensalem murder.

Detectives later found images on Marquez’s cellphone that showed both the 9mm handgun and .38 caliber revolver recovered in the field where Marquez and Hughes encountered police.

Marquez was arraigned on Monday in Ohio and held in custody in lieu of $25,000 bail, court records show.

A funeral for Romano, a student at Cecelia Snyder Middle School, was held Tuesday at St. Charles Borromeo Church in Bensalem.

Friends and family have described him as a fun-loving, outgoing teen who loved spending time with his cousins.