5 dead after 12-hour standoff at a San Fernando Valley home
A SWAT officer is slain by a gunman who said he had killed three relatives. The suspect's body is later found. Another officer is also wounded.
In a tense overnight standoff, a man shot and killed a Los Angeles SWAT officer and seriously wounded another after calling 911 to report that he had killed three family members at a San Fernando Valley home, authorities said.
The suspect was found dead in the home almost 12 hours after the standoff began, said police who did not indicate how he had died. Three males who police believe are related to the suspect were also killed.
One of the victims had been pulled from the home hours earlier by officers who believed he was still alive, police said. The rescue attempt was made as officers exchanged gunfire with the suspect -- who hid between mattresses as he fired at them, they said.
A woman who apparently was hiding inside the home came out shortly after 5 a.m. as tear gas was fired into the home, police officials said.
"When that happened, a woman suddenly appeared from the rear of the residence," said LAPD Deputy Chief Michel Moore. "She was rescued. Our understanding is she was there during the earlier carnage of the people being shot and killed."
"At this point, she does appear to be a victim," he said.
The incident began about 9 p.m. Wednesday when a man called 911 and said he had killed three people at a home in the 19800 block of Welby Way in the Valley neighborhood of Winnetka.
The decision to go into the home came more than three hours later, when officers at the scene determined that there may still be people in distress inside, said assistant police Chief Jim McDonnell.
SWAT officers broke through the front door and exchanged fire with the suspect.
Officer Randal Simmons, a veteran of the unit, was shot in the head and mortally wounded as SWAT officers broke through the front door, police said. Also wounded was Officer James Veenstra, a veteran member of the tactical team who is expected to survive. Veenstra, who is married to a police captain, was cited for valor in 1997 for his actions at the scene of a shooting that left a Glendale police detective dead.
Simmons' death is the first in the line of fire in the SWAT unit's history, McDonnell said. (SWAT Officer Louis Villalobos died during a training accident in 2000; he was also awarded the Medal of Valor.) The Special Weapons and Tactics Unit, created in the late 1960s and formalized in 1971, deals with especially dangerous situations. It handles about 100 barricaded suspect incidents and 120 high-risk warrants each year.
