News

Actions

Documents Reveal Ionia Co. Shootout Suspect’s Violent Past

Posted at 8:54 PM, May 06, 2014
and last updated 2014-05-06 22:34:34-04

WEST MICHIGAN (May 6, 2014) — Personal protection orders filed against the man killed in a shootout with police reveal the details about his troubled past.

Since 2002, Steven Goble had six PPOs filed against him. They were filed by multiple people including an ex-girlfriend, who is the mother of his children.

In the documents, her statements detail a relationship with Goble that was laced with abuse and threats over the course of several years.

On Sunday, Goble led police on a high-speed chase through Ionia County. It ended in a field where police said Goble fired shots at them, forcing them to shoot back.

FOX 17 is waiting on autopsy results to determine whether the fatal shot was self-inflicted or done by officers.

Officials said it all began when they went after Goble regarding a domestic dispute. According to the PPOs this wasn’t the first time Goble was accused of abuse.

In 2010, the mother of his children wrote in a PPO request, “I fear for our safety because he threatened to kill me & his children last night. He has tried jumping out of my car in front of the children, tried burning the house down and said to the kids that he was gonna kill himself.”

Two months later, she asked the judge to dismiss the order, writing that the couple had resolved their issues.

In 2011, documents show the couple met for a parenting class and got into a heated argument in the parking lot. Documents who that during that conversation, Goble clenched his fists at her.

He later asked her to come to his house but that she refused saying, “No, I’m not stopping by our house because you’ve already threatened to shoot me once before. Gobles response was documented as, “No, it won’t be a gun.”

In 2011, she filed again. Engaged to someone other than Goble, she wrote, “Steven Goble is still threatening to do harm/kill my fiance and we are very afraid.

Saying that in a phone conversation Goble said, “Josh has another thing coming the next time I see him and they won’t get him for murder because there won’t be any evidence!”

She went on in the same document to say Groble was a “loose cannon” and that she was afraid because he carried a gun in his car. That same day her fiance also filled a PPO against Goble.

There were no PPO’s on file against Goble from his current wife. However, court records show he filed for divorce from her in January, 2014.

Goble also had a history of fleeing from police.  In 2005 he pleaded guilty to fleeing and eluding and operating while intoxicated.

Documents obtained from Lake Odessa Police show that Goble fled when officials attempted a traffic stop in January of that year.  A passenger in the car with him told police that Goble panicked when he heard police sirens and saw flashing lights.