Two Inkster boys, ages 4 and 6, found safe in an Ohio cornfield after their father died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound

Two Inkster boys, ages 4 and 6, were found safe in a cornfield in Norwalk, Ohio, on Wednesday after their father took them from their home and died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Jenkins said.

Inkster police Chief Tameka Jenkins said officers responded around 10 a.m. to a report of domestic violence in the 4500 block of Spring Hill. A woman told officers that around 8:45 a.m., the father of her two children entered her bedroom, struck her in the head with a firearm, tied her to a bed, and left the house in her vehicle with their two sons.

Jenkins said the couple was going through a breakup that the man was upset about.

After the mother freed herself, she called the father, who told her he was in Rouge Park in Detroit and planned to kill the children and himself, Jenkins said. Detroit police searched the park but did not find him.

Detroit police Officer Seth Beneteau said he received a call around 10:54 a.m. to help locate the boys. He contacted AT&T and made an emergency request for cell phone ping data. Within 20 minutes, Beneteau said he received coordinates that placed the father and children in Norwalk, Ohio, about 120 miles from Inkster and roughly two hours from downtown Detroit.

Beneteau said he put the coordinates into Google Maps and contacted Norwalk dispatch to direct law enforcement to the area.

Detroit police Officer MyAngel Richardson, who had been searching Rouge Park, said she obtained the father's cell phone number from the boys' grandfather. She said the father kept hanging up on her and told her to stop calling while she could hear the children's voices in the background.

Richardson said she switched to a relative's phone and kept calling until the 6-year-old answered a FaceTime call. She said she could see the father on the ground, badly injured, and the gun within view.

"My daddy's dead," Richardson said the boy told her while his younger brother cried in the background.

Richardson said she told the 6-year-old to take the phone and get away from his father. She stayed on the call with him for at least 30 minutes and guided the barefoot brothers through muddy cornfield rows until Ohio authorities reached them, she said.

"Knowing that the kids are somewhere in Ohio and ... we can't even fathom where they are because we're not familiar with Norwalk, it was intense," Jenkins said.

Jenkins said officers also used Flock Safety vehicle-tracking technology to locate the car. Ohio law enforcement found the father dead and recovered the boys safe and unharmed.

The Detroit police officers involved in the case work in the city's Sixth Precinct.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Jenkins said the boys were being evaluated at an Ohio hospital and had spoken with their mother while police coordinated their return to Michigan.

Jenkins said the father has not been publicly identified.