Los Angeles Police Department Special Weapons And Tactics Unit

The standoff began shortly after a man in Winnetka called 911 saying he had gunned down three relatives. It ended early Thursday -- more than eight hours later -- with a single round from a police sniper who killed the suspect as he emerged from his burning house firing a barrage of bullets. In between, two highly decorated Los Angeles Police Department officers were shot, one fatally. The LAPD was deeply shaken by the nightlong siege in an otherwise quiet San Fernando Valley neighborhood.

Edwin Rivera spent many a day hanging around his family's Welby Way home in the San Fernando Valley watching TV, playing video games and shooting the breeze with friends who came by to shoot baskets and drink beer on the back patio. He was the son of immigrants; he got into fistfights, had a hard time in school and later had trouble holding a job, according to those who knew him.

Funeral services were held Friday for Officer Randal Simmons, 51, of the Los Angeles Police Department's SWAT team, who was fatally shot Feb. 7 during a standoff at a Winnetka house, where a gunman killed three family members. A police sniper killed the gunman. The Times' Homicide Report blog and message boards have received more than 600 comments from readers expressing their feelings about Simmons' death.

The lone surviving brother of the youth who shot and killed LAPD SWAT Officer Randal Simmons expressed his condolences to the officer's family Tuesday and said his brother had been depressed. But Wilfredo Rivera, 27, said he could not explain the events that left his father, three brothers and Simmons dead. SWAT Officer James Veenstra was wounded in the incident. "The family is at a loss," said Rivera, an air-conditioning installer who had married and moved from the family home in Winnetka.

A team of 30 SWAT officers will run a torch relay during Sunday's Los Angeles Marathon in tribute to Randal Simmons, the SWAT officer killed Feb. 7 in a shootout in Winnetka. Simmons' 15-year-old son, Matt, will run the final 1.2 miles with the officers. They hope to raise money to fund Matt's education and that of his 12-year-old sister, Gabrielle, who will stand at the finish line with Simmons' widow, Lisa.

A highly regarded female police officer has been accepted into the training program for the Los Angeles Police Department's SWAT unit, clearing a major hurdle toward becoming the first woman officer to join the elite, insular group since its formation more than 35 years ago. Jennifer Grasso, 36, is one of 13 LAPD officers selected for spots in the department's 12-week training school, which is scheduled to begin on Monday, according to an internal LAPD email obtained by The Times.

The Los Angeles Police Department waged an aggressive behind-the-scenes campaign to convince coroner's officials to change their finding that a SWAT officer's bullet killed a 19-month-old girl held hostage by her father three years ago, according to records reviewed by The Times. The intense lobbying effort, which involved one of the department's highest-ranking officials, led to significant friction between the LAPD and coroner's office.