Police Sieges

Police found the bullet-riddled bodies of three fellow officers inside a rundown motel room early Friday after a 70-year-old woman and her three heavily-armed sons emerged from the barricaded room and surrendered. The discovery, after a 10-hour siege punctuated by gunfire and a tear gas assault, dashed the hopes of law enforcement officials, who had been assured by the woman that her police hostages were still alive. "It hurts," said a somber Inkster police chief, James Buckley.

A Fresno County sheriff's deputy was fatally shot and two other officers were wounded Thursday in an all-day confrontation with a barricaded arson suspect in the tiny unincorporated community of Minkler, 20 miles east of Fresno. "This morning, I had to deliver the message that no law enforcement leader wants to deliver, and that was to the wife of a deputy sheriff, that her husband had been killed in the line of duty," Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims said at a news conference.

A drive-by attack followed by a wild shootout between gang members and police shut down dozens of blocks of Northeast Los Angeles for nearly six hours Thursday afternoon, stranding thousands of residents, keeping students locked in their classrooms and leaving two people dead. Veteran L.A. Police Department officials described the bizarre midday shootings -- and the widespread disruption they caused -- as highly unusual even in an area known for gang activity.

In a victory for the Los Angeles Police Department, a judge on Monday threw out a lawsuit filed by the mother of a toddler killed by a SWAT officer's bullet during an attempted hostage rescue in 2005. The case before L.A. County Superior Court Judge Rolf M. Treu was set to go to the jury this week after SWAT officers and police experts completed their testimony in a two-week trial.

In a hail of gunfire from automatic weapons, three police officers on a routine call were taken hostage late Thursday by a mother and her four sons, who then barricaded themselves in a run-down motel in this depressed Detroit suburb. As hundreds of area police and FBI agents blocked off passing traffic on the main avenue through town, law enforcement officials said they did not know whether the three officers were still alive.

A Fresno County sheriff's deputy was fatally shot and two other officers were wounded Thursday in an all-day confrontation with a barricaded arson suspect in the tiny unincorporated community of Minkler, 20 miles east of Fresno. "This morning, I had to deliver the message that no law enforcement leader wants to deliver, and that was to the wife of a deputy sheriff, that her husband had been killed in the line of duty," Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims said at a news conference.

The man who wounded two officers and held a SWAT team at bay outside a Marina del Rey apartment complex died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, a coroner's spokesman said Tuesday. The end of the dramatic standoff came about 11 p.m. Monday after police blew the door off a fifth-floor unit in the Marina Pointe Apartments near Lincoln Boulevard and Maxella Avenue and found the body of Joseph Macio Allain, 20, of Memphis. About 11 a.m.

A grand jury declared Tuesday that Mayor W. Wilson Goode and his top aides displayed incompetence and "morally reprehensible behavior" in the 1985 MOVE bombing that killed 11 people and destroyed 61 homes, but it said they did nothing to warrant criminal indictments. The panel described as "this city's greatest tragedy" the failed eviction effort that ended in a fiery siege with the police bombing of a barricaded west Philadelphia row house occupied by members of the radical group MOVE. Dist.

Pianist Roger Williams called Johnnie Carl late Thursday afternoon. Williams was playing Christmas Eve at the Crystal Cathedral, where Carl was musical director, and the two men needed to talk. Carl's voice was almost unintelligible, more growling than talking. "I'm going to kill myself," Carl said, and then he hung up on the man he called his best friend. "He was just completely out of his mind," Williams said. Williams called the Yorba Linda house again 20 minutes later, hoping to get Carl's wife, Linda.

The North Hollywood shootout trial appeared headed for a mistrial Wednesday after the jury reported it was hopelessly deadlocked over whether police allowed a wounded bank robber to bleed to death. "Regrettably, the jury is unable to reach an unanimous verdict," the jury foreman said in a note sent to U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder on the third day of deliberations. The note gave no indication of how the jury was split. Despite "vigorous discussions, review of the evidence, etc.

A former prison guard, apparently upset over a failed romantic relationship, stormed an Irvine home, fatally shot a 60-year-old man and wounded two others before surrendering to police early Saturday morning, police said. Responding to a report of a residential robbery about 9 p.m. Friday, police arrived at the quiet Woodbridge neighborhood to discover that 24-year-old Alwyn Gibson II of Fairfield, Texas, had barricaded himself inside the home of his ex-girlfriend's family, police said.

A burglary suspect who barricaded himself inside a house in Winnetka was arrested Saturday after SWAT team officers disabled him with tear gas and then stormed in, the Los Angeles Police Department said. The 11-hour standoff ended about 2:35 a.m. when police arrested Michael Krieger, 32. Police said he had been wanted in connection with a string of auto burglaries. Police said the incident began Friday afternoon in the 20600 block of Saticoy Street when Krieger spotted officers in the area and fled into the house.

Manuel Benitez, a former child actor who was the main suspect in his girlfriend's 2004 slaying, had been on the run for more than four years with the couple's young son when police finally caught up with him this week in El Monte. There was no indication that anyone knew the "suspicious person with a child" first reported to authorities Tuesday was the man once featured on "America's Most Wanted."

A gunman who took a 6-year-old boy hostage was killed by police Tuesday night after a two-hour standoff and a brief gun battle at an El Monte Chinese restaurant. The man, who police say snatched the child off a sidewalk and barricaded himself inside the restaurant, was declared dead at the eatery soon after gunshots were fired, according to Los Angeles County sheriff's Sgt. Lt. Liam Gallagher. The boy, who police say may be the gunman's son, was also injured in the shootout.

Israel took its strongest action against Jewish settlers in nearly three years Thursday as riot police stormed a disputed building in Hebron, using tear gas and stun grenades to force out 250 young extremists bent on expanded Israeli occupation of the West Bank.

A man was arrested on suspicion of murder Thursday after he reportedly shot his brother to death outside a residence in the Mid-Wilshire area and then barricaded himself inside for six hours before surrendering to a SWAT team. Edward Kaddis, 61, surrendered about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday, ending a standoff at his residence in the 1000 block of Crenshaw Boulevard, near Country Club Drive, police said. Paramedics were sent to the house about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in response to a request for medical assistance and discovered a gunshot victim, identified by police as 63-year-old William Kaddis.

A gunman armed with an assault rifle and six other weapons fired about 200 shots from his apartment overlooking Interstate 5 in Glendale on Thursday, closing the freeway for more than four hours and forcing nearby residents to duck for safety. The shots from the apartment, which began about 11 a.m., continued off and on for more than 45 minutes. Glendale police returned fire. The gunfire left the apartment complex pocked with bullet holes and littered with debris dislodged by the shots.

A man who was fired from his job at an auto parts company six months ago returned Wednesday with a handgun and shot six former co-workers, killing them all, authorities said. He then waged a gun battle with officers before a member of an elite police unit fatally wounded him. Salvador Tapia, 36, who had been arrested a dozen times on weapons, assault and other charges, died after being taken to a hospital, police said.

Eight people were arrested on suspicion of kidnapping a 24-year-old man after SWAT officers and detectives made a high-risk rescue Tuesday afternoon at a Reseda home, police said. Members of the Los Angeles Police Department's Robbery-Homicide Division had the house in the 18300 block of Schoolcraft Street under surveillance after an attempt to deliver a ransom to the kidnappers failed.

A Monrovia police officer and a gunman are recovering from gunshot wounds after a Sunday morning shootout that began when authorities tried to stop the man from stealing a car. The gunman fled from officers as they approached him shortly after midnight in the 500 block of West Duarte Road, said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Hugo Macias. The Sheriff's Department is now investigating the incident. Monrovia police and California Highway Patrol officers had been called to the area to investigate a car robbery, Macias said.