Little Boy Held Hostage 30 Hours Advises Captor, Telling Him Not to Kill Himself

"I said that jail would probably help you get better at life, and that would be a better option to do"

A 10-year-old boy who was held hostage for 30 hours is being hailed as a hero after talking to the man who held him captive and telling him not to kill himself.

"That's part of me. That's a hero," Iris Trammell, the boy's grandmother, said.

Last Friday, Sincere Trammell said he and his mother were home alone inside their Liberty Township, Ohio, apartment when the nightmare began to unfold.

Trammell was in another room and his mother was in the kitchen cooking. When Trammell walked into the kitchen he saw a man with a gun to his mom's head. The 10-year-old didn't recognize the man at first, but he is suspected to be 31-year-old Donald Gazaway, a longtime family friend, police said.

"[He] kept saying give me $10,000, now," Sincere said. "He chased me in a room because he thought I had a phone, and then [my mom] ran out the door," Trammell said.

The fourth-grader said his mother had no other choice but to run and try and get help for them. That is what sparked the standoff between police and Gazaway, during which cops said Gazaway fired between 20 and 30 rounds at them.

"You can feel a little wind from the gun, and one shell popped out on me," Trammell said.

The boy said that Gazaway then took him to the garage, and they got into the car. That was when the pair started talking.

"He kept saying in the car that he was going to let me go, regardless," Trammell said. "I convinced him to turn himself in because he was going to kill himself and he kept crying. He was saying that he had two options, and then he said he was going to kill himself or turn himself in, and he kept saying he might kill himself, so I told him how I was feeling. I wouldn't like that, and he has two daughters who would feel bad."

Trammell said he told Gazaway jail would be a better option.

"I said that jail would probably help you get better at life, and that would be a better option to do. So I said it's better to have a punishment than kill yourself, and I'm saying that God basically will give you another chance to become a better person in life," Trammell recalled.

Shortly afterwards, Gazaway released Sincere to authorities.

Trammell's grandmother said Gazaway spent Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's with the family, but she said he didn't act like the man she knew, and that she believes he must have been on drugs.

Gazaway is currently in the Butler County Jail. He is charged with kidnapping, felonious assault and inducing panic. His bond was set at more than $1 million.

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