Mel Evans / AP

Investigators wearing protective clothing talk under a tent in Trenton, N.J., on Sunday.

Three children are safe after a 36-hour standoff with an armed man in Trenton, N.J., ended early Sunday, state law enforcement officials said.

But the bodies of a woman, presumed to be home owner Carmelita Stevens, 44 -- the mother of the children -- and a young boy, presumed to be her 13-year-old son, were found decomposing in the home, police revealed at a Sunday morning press conference.

The hostage taker, identified as Gerald "Skip" Murphy,  38, was also killed during the rescue, officials said. He was not believed to have been related to any of the children.

The freed children, a 4-year-old boy, and 16- and 18-year-old girls, were being treated at a local hospital.

Lt. Steve Varn of Trenton Police said the hostage situation ended shortly before 5 a.m. ET, adding that the area around the home where it took place is now secure.

Police were alerted to the situation on Grand Street in Trenton at 2:47 pm on Friday, officials said.

Cops had received a call from a relative of Stevens, saying she hadn't been seen her for a "long period of time" and that her two daughters had not been in school for 12 days, said Mercer County Prosecutor Joseph L. Bocchini Jr. at the Sunday news briefing.

When officers arrived at the Stevens home, they didn't get a response when they knocked on the door, so made a forced entry through a rear door, Bocchini said. When they entered the residence, they immediately smelled the stench of a rotting corpse, and could see maggots, he said.

Upstairs, they found Murphy had barricaded himself inside the house with “multiple” hostages, saying he had a gun and explosives.

When police officers secured the rest of the premises, they discovered a 19-year-old man in the basement, also Stevens' son, who said he hadn't seen his mothers or sisters since mid April.

Homes in the surrounding area were also evacuated as a precautionary measure as hostage negotiators spent nearly two days communicating with Murphy, officials said. Food and bottled water was passed through an upstairs window for the children.

But, noting what NJ State Police Col. Rick Fuentes called Murphy's "deteriorating state of mind," officers eventually made an entry into the room where the hostages were being held, and a single shot was fired at the suspect as he made a violent move toward one of the children.

Murphy, who had warrants for not registering as a sex offender, and a rap sheet that included assault, robbery, weapons and child endangerment charges, was taken to a hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

Officials said it was too early to determine exactly when Stevens and the young boy had been killed, but said that they were in a state of decomposition.

Trenton police were supported by state police and FBI as well as the city’s arson and bomb and canine units, Varn said.

NBC News' Justin Kirschner and Alastair Jamieson contributed to this report.

This story was originally published on Sun May 12, 2013 10:52 AM EDT

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- A naked man holding a "Samurai"-type sword was arrested after a bizarre New Year's Day standoff with police.

Authorities were called to Ezie Street and Cas Drive in San Jose after several people called 911 to report a man standing in front of a home with an assault rifle just after 8 a.m. local time (11 a.m. ET).

As police rushed to the scene, witnesses said the man got in a car and drove to Southwest Expressway and Bascom Avenue. That's where police pulled him over.

Read more news on NBCBayArea.com

Police said the suspect immediately got out of his car and started yelling, "You're going to have to kill me."

He was naked and holding a large "Samurai"-type sword, according to police.

One witness told NBC Bay Area that the man was pacing back and forth waving the sword at times.

San Jose Police Department "Crisis Intervention Team" members were called to the scene and a standoff began.

Coco Bennett, 29, was taken into custody without incident just before 11 a.m. local time (2 p.m. ET).

Police said he would be evaluated by doctors.

An AR-15-type assault rifle was recovered, according to police.

Tim Sharp / Reuters

Police cruisers block an intersection leading to the scene of the construction crane standoff in Dallas, Texas, Monday.

DALLAS -- The standoff between Dallas police and a man that climbed to the top of a construction crane on the campus of Southern Methodist University ended early Tuesday morning, when the man fell to his death.

At about 1 a.m. Dallas police used bright lights, loud directional sirens and the police helicopter to distract the man, while four SWAT officers climbed the crane to storm the cab believed to be 100 to 150 feet above the ground.

Police say the man sprayed a WD-40-like substance at officers as they entered the cab. He then climbed out the smashed windshield of the cab.

"He retreated to a position in the crane where he had one leg in a window and one leg outside the window, from there he went over the edge, and clung to the edge for a moment before he fell to his death," said Dallas Deputy Chief Randy Blankenbaker.

The man fell just before 2 a.m. Tuesday morning, ending a roughly 14-hour standoff.

"We at SMU are relieved this situation has been resolved and the campus is secure. We all regret the loss of life," said SMU spokesman Brad Cheves.

Read the full story at NBCDFW.com

Throughout the day, the suspect dropped items from the crane cab, including his shirt and shoes, some cans, a fire extinguisher, and other items that may have been inside the cab.

Tim Sharp / Reuters

A robbery suspect sits in the cab of a construction crane on the SMU campus, Monday.

Sources tell NBC 5 the man may have become ill during the standoff and vomited, perhaps due to the heat.

As night fell, Dallas police used a spotlight to shine light into the crane. Police also used noise machines to keep the man awake and talking.

Man is suspect in armed robbery
Police did confirmed Tuesday the man is the suspect connected to an overnight robbery about 2:30 a.m. Monday and that police dogs tracked the man's scent to the construction site.

David Cantu said he was putting sound and lighting equipment into the truck outside the Adolphus Hotel when a man jumped in and tried to stab him with something sharp, possibly a nail.

"I said, What are you doing?'" Cantu said. "He swung his arm at me with a sharp object and for the most part, I just backed off and let him do his thing."

Cantu said the man sped away, hitting several cars parked along Main Street.

"You hear a big bang multiple times," he said. "He's hitting multiple cars at that point."

The stolen truck was later found not far from the crane, according to police.

Chris Ghanbari, a freelance photographer who lives in a building overlooking the scene, got out his video camera and started rolling.

"I just started shooting a minute -- a minute-and-a-half -- of video of the crime scene," Ghanbari said. "About 30 minutes later, we had 10 to 15 police cars out there."

Here is his video:

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Police respond to a hostage incident at the Highland Woods trailer park in Deerfield Beach, Fla.

A gunman and two other people died during a hostage standoff in Deerfield Beach, Fla., NBC Miami reported early Friday.

The Broward Sheriff’s Office said the shooter and a male child were found dead after a SWAT team "made entry" into a recreational vehicle in Deerfield Beach, which is north of Miami.

Click for more details from NBC Miami

A woman and another boy were both taken to hospitals and were listed as being in critical condition, police said.

The incident began at about 6:30 p.m. ET when the suspect shot a man outside a RV at the Highland Woods trailer park.

The suspect was at one point holed up in a RV with as many as five other people, and later two, as he held a gun to a woman’s head, police said.

However, that hostage was later released, her daughter told NBC Miami.

Just before 8:30 p.m., Broward Sheriff's Office vehicles moved in to try to remove an injured person laying motionless on the ground. The man appeared to be the victim who was shot earlier.

However, police could not retrieve him because of the gunman said he would shoot if they came too close, according to Dani Moschella of the Broward Sheriff's Office.

That person was later declared dead, authorities said.

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NBC Miami and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

LAREDO, Texas -- A mother who had been denied welfare benefits shot her two children and then killed herself after a seven-hour standoff at a government social services office in Laredo, Texas, police said.

"The children are alive, but they are in critical condition," Laredo police investigator Joe Baeza told KGNS-TV, an NBC affiliate in Laredo on Tuesday.

The children, a 10-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl, were unconscious when taken from the scene, he said. Their names, along with the name of the woman, were not released by police.

The standoff began around 5 p.m. Monday afternoon. Baeza said the woman was speaking with two employees when she pulled out a gun and said she wanted to speak to a supervisor. When the supervisor arrived, he persuaded her to let the employees go in exchange for keeping him.

"He told the woman he would remain with her," Baeza said, adding "He acted quite courageously."

Read KGNS's coverage: Standoff shootings update by Laredo police investigator Baeza

Meanwhile, about 25 other people in the building were moved to safety, police said.

Police negotiators stayed on the phone with the woman throughout the evening, but she kept hanging up, Baez said. She let the supervisor go unharmed around 7:45 p.m., but stayed inside the office with her children. After hanging up the phone around 11:45 p.m., police heard three shots, and a SWAT team entered the building. Inside, they found her body and her two wounded children.

The 38-year-old woman had recently moved to the area from Zanesville, Ohio, east of Columbus, Baeza said. She told negotiators about a litany of complaints against state and federal government agencies. It sounded like she had been denied services several months ago, Baeza said, but it wasn't clear what specifically triggered Monday's standoff.

"This wasn't like a knee-jerk reaction," Baeza said, adding that the woman felt she was owed restitution of some sort.

"The overall understanding is that this was more than just a one-issue crisis," he told KGNS-TV.

This article includes reporting from NBC station KGNS in Laredo and The Associated Press.

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