Post Falls police investigators look for evidence near a cross where a suicidal man shot himself in the chest outside the Real Life Ministries church Sunday in Post Falls. Dale L. Belieu, 59, of Craigmont, Idaho, was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. (Scott Maben/SR photo)

A man shot and fatally wounded himself outside a Post Falls megachurch Sunday while hundreds of worshipers were on lockdown inside a nearby building.

Dale L. Belieu, 59, of Craigmont, Idaho, was taken to Kootenai Health in Coeur d’Alene, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

Belieu shot himself in the upper chest, standing under a cross outside Real Life Ministries, after more than two hours of talking with a police negotiator, Post Falls police Chief Scot Haug said.

Belieu had indicated he was a military veteran who served in Iraq. A couple of times during the negotiation he indicated he wanted police to shoot him, Haug said.

“The officer that was negotiating with him did a very good job of explaining to him that all of us have families, too. We all have children. We don’t want to have to do something like that,” he said. “I think (the negotiating officer) actually talked him out of doing that. I really do.”

Belieu twice fired a handgun into the ground during a roughly 40-minute period, then shot himself just after noon, Haug said/Scott Maben, SR. More here.