Special Weapons

A San Diego County deputy sheriff was killed and two others were wounded by a heavily armed gunman who was slain at the end of a bloody, 12-hour siege at an Escondido apartment complex Saturday. Officers killed the gunman at sunset as he ran from his apartment on Mission Avenue, firing an AK-47 automatic assault rifle. The apartment had been set ablaze by a bombardment of tear gas grenades and concussion bombs.

Chris Henrikson got it all wrong. You're supposed to quit Hollywood because nobody appreciates your work. In his case, success drove him out. "I felt like I'd sold my script down the river," he says as we exit the Pacific Coast Highway and climb the mountains of Malibu on our way to a juvenile detention camp. Henrikson had reluctantly reworked his screenplay at the request of a producer back in 1995, and felt creepy about it.

A Sheriff's Department special weapons team, alerted that an 18-year-old murder suspect might be barricaded inside his Calabasas home early Saturday morning, sealed off the neighborhood and lobbed tear gas in the house but found it empty, authorities said. The suspect, Robert Rosenkrantz, is charged with the June 28 shooting death of Steven Redman, a 17-year-old Calabasas High School student. Deputies said they received two calls at 1 a.m.

Despite the cold night air, sweat streamed down Officer Ben Chavez's face and stained his camouflaged fatigues. Chavez and other members of the Oxnard SWAT team had just stormed a darkened, smoke-filled house, shot a couple of gun-toting bad guys with paint pellets and freed two hostages. "Let's shine some light on these guys and see who's been hit," said Gary Rovarino, a SWAT veteran and consultant who critiqued the four-hour practice siege.

A purportedly suicidal man hiding in a Van Nuys house surrounded by police shot himself once in the chest Monday evening before walking outside to give himself up, authorities said. Police surrounded the house on the 1400 block of Runnymead Street at about 5 p.m. after the man threatened suicide in a call to a psychiatric unit in Van Nuys, said Los Angeles police Sgt. Craig Rungaitis. Rungaitis said police thought the armed man might be holding hostages.

A pharmacist and at least two members of his family apparently were being held hostage in an Echo Park drugstore by an armed robber Thursday afternoon, after police officers surrounded the building. By late afternoon, no shots had been fired and no one was known to be injured, officers said. Because of logistics in the building containing the Taylor Pharmacy, eight people were trapped for a time in a small medical clinic on the second floor, Los Angeles police said.

The training of law enforcement officers in the county will move into the realm of high technology this year if the Orange County Sheriff's Department gets its way. Department officials want officers to learn to stay alive in dangerous situations by engaging in laser gunfights on a fake city street designed like a movie set. The Sheriff's Department is seeking authorization from the County Board of Supervisors to build what would be called Laser Village near a department firing range in Orange.

Chris Henrikson got it all wrong. You're supposed to quit Hollywood because nobody appreciates your work. In his case, success drove him out. "I felt like I'd sold my script down the river," he says as we exit the Pacific Coast Highway and climb the mountains of Malibu on our way to a juvenile detention camp. Henrikson had reluctantly reworked his screenplay at the request of a producer back in 1995, and felt creepy about it.

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.

Backed by a Sheriff's Department special weapons team and local police, investigators for the Los Angeles District Attorney's major frauds unit Thursday searched the Whittier home of a record company president and seized financial documents of his troubled company. The pre-dawn raid at the home of Kimball D. Richards, 30-year-old president and owner of Consolidated Allied Cos., was part of a coordinated operation that searched seven other locations in Los Angeles and Orange counties Thursday.

A para-glider pilot attempting to break a distance record instead was set upon by sheriff's deputies when he made an emergency landing at the Pitchess Detention Center after his non-motorized aircraft began losing altitude, authorities said Saturday. "It makes a good story: Pilot lands in jail or whatever," the pilot, Thomas Truax of Carpinteria, joked Saturday night. "I didn't realize the jail was there," Truax said. "I thought it was a business center."

The training of law enforcement officers in the county will move into the realm of high technology this year if the Orange County Sheriff's Department gets its way. Department officials want officers to learn to stay alive in dangerous situations by engaging in laser gunfights on a fake city street designed like a movie set. The Sheriff's Department is seeking authorization from the County Board of Supervisors to build what would be called Laser Village near a department firing range in Orange.

A San Diego County deputy sheriff was killed and two others were wounded by a heavily armed gunman who was slain at the end of a bloody, 12-hour siege at an Escondido apartment complex Saturday. Officers killed the gunman at sunset as he ran from his apartment on Mission Avenue, firing an AK-47 automatic assault rifle. The apartment had been set ablaze by a bombardment of tear gas grenades and concussion bombs.

Backed by a Sheriff's Department special weapons team and local police, investigators for the Los Angeles District Attorney's major frauds unit Thursday searched the Whittier home of a record company president and seized financial documents of his troubled company. The pre-dawn raid at the home of Kimball D. Richards, 30-year-old president and owner of Consolidated Allied Cos., was part of a coordinated operation that searched seven other locations in Los Angeles and Orange counties Thursday.

A pharmacist and at least two members of his family apparently were being held hostage in an Echo Park drugstore by an armed robber Thursday afternoon, after police officers surrounded the building. By late afternoon, no shots had been fired and no one was known to be injured, officers said. Because of logistics in the building containing the Taylor Pharmacy, eight people were trapped for a time in a small medical clinic on the second floor, Los Angeles police said.

A Sheriff's Department special weapons team, alerted that an 18-year-old murder suspect might be barricaded inside his Calabasas home early Saturday morning, sealed off the neighborhood and lobbed tear gas in the house but found it empty, authorities said. The suspect, Robert Rosenkrantz, is charged with the June 28 shooting death of Steven Redman, a 17-year-old Calabasas High School student. Deputies said they received two calls at 1 a.m.

A murder suspect facing his third strike under California's penal code barricaded himself inside a friend's apartment and killed himself Wednesday morning after Los Angeles police cornered him and evacuated the neighborhood, including a preschool. Police had an arrest warrant for 23-year-old Ronald Figueroa, wanted in connection with a May drive-by shooting of a 20-year-old woman who was riding in a car with rival gang members in Montecito Heights.

A para-glider pilot attempting to break a distance record instead was set upon by sheriff's deputies when he made an emergency landing at the Pitchess Detention Center after his non-motorized aircraft began losing altitude, authorities said Saturday. "It makes a good story: Pilot lands in jail or whatever," the pilot, Thomas Truax of Carpinteria, joked Saturday night. "I didn't realize the jail was there," Truax said. "I thought it was a business center."

A purportedly suicidal man hiding in a Van Nuys house surrounded by police shot himself once in the chest Monday evening before walking outside to give himself up, authorities said. Police surrounded the house on the 1400 block of Runnymead Street at about 5 p.m. after the man threatened suicide in a call to a psychiatric unit in Van Nuys, said Los Angeles police Sgt. Craig Rungaitis. Rungaitis said police thought the armed man might be holding hostages.