Suicides

A man suspected of killing his newlywed wife, his sister-in-law and three young children killed himself Friday after police forced their way into the home he had fled to and found him hiding in a bathroom, authorities said. Davon Crawford had served prison time for manslaughter and again for assault involving domestic violence, records showed. Crawford's wife, Lechea, was killed about four miles away in the couple's home Thursday night, along with her sister and the sister's 4-year-old daughter and 2-year-old twins.

A Fountain Valley man who allegedly killed two Southern California Gas Co. employees last week before turning a gun on himself has died, authorities said. Phong Thuc Tran, 36, was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his car, which was parked near the Anaheim Police Department, at about 1:30 a.m. Thursday, said Sgt. Tim Schmidt. Tran was taken by ambulance to UCI Medical Center and pronounced dead Saturday night at about 10 p.m., Schmidt said. Police suspect Tran shot and killed 37-year-old Hung Duy Dao, a seven-year energy technician, Tuesday night in the parking lot of a Southern California Gas Co. facility in Anaheim.

Student suicides: An article in Friday's Section A on teen suicides at Henry M. Gunn High School in Palo Alto, Calif., said Sophia Jiang, a junior, launched Operation Beautiful to help herself and others deal with the suicides of fellow Gunn students. Jiang's effort, which involves posting messages of affirmation at her school, is not affiliated with Operation Beautiful, a website and campaign aimed at boosting women's self-image that was started by Caitlin Boyle of Orlando, Fla.

Authorities have identified a man who committed suicide Tuesday after firing shots at two Laguna Beach police patrol cars as he drove along Pacific Coast Highway. Daniel Armijo, 36, of San Pedro shot himself about 3 p.m., authorities said. Neither officer was struck. Armijo was driving his Chevy Silverado pickup north on PCH when he opened fire on the police cars, authorities said. Armijo pulled into the left-turn lane at Cress Street, stopped and shot himself in the head as police closed in. "They told him to exit the truck, and he shot himself in the head," said witness Joel Murphy 49. "I was pretty shocked," he said.

Los Angeles County prosecutors acknowledged Tuesday that they failed to inform a West Covina woman about a plea deal in December that allowed her estranged husband out of jail after he pleaded guilty to threatening her with a stun gun. The lapse is one of several decisions the district attorney's office is investigating after Curtis Bernard Harris, 34, kidnapped Monica Thomas-Harris, 37, and killed her before taking his own life over the weekend at a Whittier motel.

For more than a year after a 15-year-old Lake Los Angeles boy shot himself to death, authorities have been building a case against his grandfather for abuse that they say prompted the suicide, including hitting the teen with a baseball bat. Greg Smith killed himself with a shotgun after grandfather Willie Davis beat him with an aluminum bat for not making his bed neatly enough, according to testimony by Davis' 16-year-old son, who also lived in the house and witnessed the Aug. 29, 2006, attack.

A woman who worked for the United Nations died after falling from the 19th floor of the U.N.'s Secretariat Building, authorities said. Police and U.N. security officers said the woman, in her 40s, had jumped from a window. U.N. deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said, "At this time there is no suspicion of foul play." Okabe said U.N. officials would not confirm her identity even after her next of kin were notified. In 1982, a 57-year-old senior U.N. official who had just resigned plunged to his death from the 18th floor of the building.

The Food and Drug Administration said it was investigating a possible link between Merck's drug Singulair and suicide. The agency said it was reviewing reports involving mood changes and suicidal behavior in patients who had taken the allergy and asthma drug.

About 1,000 people attended a funeral in Iowa City for a couple and their four children who police said were killed in a murder-suicide shortly after attending an Easter Mass in the same church. Six caskets rested end to end at the front of the church Steven Sueppel, 42, is believed to have beat his wife and children to death, probably with a baseball bat, before killing himself in a high-speed crash on Interstate 80 early Monday morning. Sueppel had been indicted last fall on federal charges accusing him of embezzling nearly $560,000 from Hills Bank & Trust, where he once worked.

An Orange County sheriff's deputy found dead shortly after being charged with molesting a 12-year-old boy had learned of his impending arrest by accessing an internal computer system, authorities said Friday. Gerald Stenger, 41, who was found about 2 p.m.