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Clarence Temple: Man With Murderous Past Takes Hostages, Kills Himself in North County

By Chad Garrison on Wed, Sep 7, 2011 at 11:43 am

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Police found Clarence Temple dead around 6:45 a.m. today.

A hostage situation in unincorporated north St. Louis County ended this morning with the suspect taking his own life.

According to St. Louis County Police, 39-year-old Clarence Temple forced his way into a home in the 6600 block of Chesapeake Drive (right) around 4 a.m. today and held three adults hostage at gunpoint.

The victims -- two males and a female -- eventually escaped the home with one of the men cutting himself on glass from a sliding door that Temple may have shattered to gain entrance to the home. Once the hostages escaped, Temple allegedly took his own life with the handgun.

Police say Temple's ex-girlfriend lived in the home and had an order of protection on Temple and was scheduled to go to court today to ask for a full order of protection. Court records indicate that Temple, of the 4300 block of Chouteau in St. Louis, has a violent past.

In 1997 he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, armed criminal action and assault in a 1994 homicide in St. Louis. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison. In 1992 he also pleaded guilty in St. Louis to unlawful use of a handgun.