Police shoot, kill suspect in abduction of female Central Michigan University student

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich., (WXYZ) -  

A man abducted and raped a Central Michigan University student, set a house on fire where the woman had fled for help and was fatally shot miles away by a sheriff's deputy, authorities said Thursday.

Isabella County Sheriff Leo Mioduszewski said the man was identified as Eric Ramsey, 30, of Mount Pleasant.

The woman was abducted from campus in her own vehicle Wednesday night and taken to a home off campus where she was bound and raped. The sheriff said Ramsey then put her back in the Ford Escape, but she escaped from the moving vehicle and ran to a home yelling for help.

While the woman was inside talking to an emergency dispatcher, Ramsey "ended up pouring gasoline on the house and then lit it on fire," Mioduszewski said in a statement.

By early Thursday morning, Ramsey was spotted in Otsego County, where he rammed the first of two state police cars. The sheriff said he subsequently stole a truck and was fatally shot by a deputy in Crawford County, 85 miles north of the university.

The fire at the Mount Pleasant home was extinguished by the owner.

Campus police Chief Bill Yeagley said Ramsey told the woman that he chose her at random outside the Student Activity Center on campus. The chief said the woman saved her own life by fleeing from the car.

"I believe she made all the right choices," Yeagley said. "She's the true hero in this."

Ramsey had convictions for assault, malicious destruction of property and resisting police, the Morning Sun in Mount Pleasant reported.