Suicides Los Angeles County

An apparent grudge between two airmen led to what is believed to be the first multiple slaying ever at Edwards Air Force Base on Saturday, leaving three men dead, including a respected military policeman. A lone gunman killed the officer and a fellow senior airman before allegedly shooting himself once in the head with a 9-millimeter Glock pistol in his military dormitory, Air Force officials said. Dead are Tech. Sgt. Robert B.

Detectives investigating the death of Superior Court Judge Douglas A. McKee, whose body was found at the bottom of steep cliffs in Rancho Palos Verdes, said Friday that all clues show the 56-year-old committed suicide. "There is nothing to indicate any kind of foul play," said Det. Mark Lillienfeld, an investigator with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Shootings by peace officers in Los Angeles County in which individuals wanted to be killed--known as "suicide by cop"--jumped sharply last year, according to a study published Tuesday. The research examined shootings between 1987 and 1997 by members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, as well as by officers in some cities where shootings by local police are investigated by the department.

Greg Peek lay in the bitterly cold stream, unable to move, his mother holding his head out of the water as the sirens approached. It was February, 1979, and Greg--Greggie then--had gone exploring while his family picnicked at a Ventura County park. "It had been raining. He was playing on some rocks," said his mother, Donna Hoey. And then he was gone. Greg fell over the side of a 50-foot cliff, landing in the stream. His mother thought her son's life was over.

Some thought Desta Asgedom was destined to join the ranks of the world's top middle-distance runners. They said the sinewy Ethiopian had the right ingredients--a long, graceful stride and a strong finishing kick. He was fortunate, others said, because Asgedom, 19, also had the opportunity to attend college and train in the United States. But those hopes were shattered in an instant on the morning of Sept. 1.

The death of TV game show host Ray Combs, who hanged himself with a bedsheet last month in the psychiatric ward of Glendale Adventist Hospital, has been ruled a suicide. Craig Harvey, chief of investigations for the Los Angeles County Coroner, said Monday that toxicology reports showed only therapeutic drugs in Combs' system. Neuropathology reports showed that hanging, not injuries to the head, which he had received before his admittance to the hospital, had killed him.

A San Fernando Valley man in his early 20s apparently killed himself Friday night by walking into the path of an oncoming Metrolink train that was bound for Moorpark, authorities said. Witnesses told police that as the train neared Louise Avenue about 6:20 p.m. a man was seen walking along the center of the track, Metrolink spokesman Peter Hidalgo said. Repeated soundings of the train's horn did not deter the man, Hidalgo said.

Police investigators said Wednesday that a hospital closet bar designed to give way under pressure did not work properly, allowing a former TV game show host to hang himself in the psychiatric ward of a Glendale hospital. Meanwhile, county health officials have opened their own investigation into the death of entertainer Ray Combs, who hanged himself with a bedsheet Sunday morning at Glendale Adventist Hospital.

Distraught over marital problems and recent career setbacks, former game show host Ray Combs tried to commit suicide at least twice last week before he succeeded in hanging himself in a Glendale hospital room, authorities said Monday. Police said Combs, 40, who hosted "The New Family Feud" from 1986 to 1994, was found dead in a closet, hanging from a bedsheet, about 4 a.m. Sunday at Glendale Adventist Medical Center. Sgt.

A prisoner in the Torrance jail hanged himself Thursday by fashioning a noose and suspending it from a part of an air vent that he had broken off from the top of his cell, Torrance police said. Timothy McCauley, 27, of Torrance, who had been arrested on suspicion of assault and evading arrest Wednesday night, was pronounced dead on arrival at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Torrance. Sgt. John Spindler said McCauley was last seen alive at noon.