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Gunman Found Dead After Five Hour Standoff With Police in Glendale
Glendale police say a man who repeatedly fired a semi-automatic weapon from a second-story apartment unit is dead. A SWAT team entered the unit after lobbing tear gas inside and found the man dead. Police responded to reports of sniper fire near the Golden State (5) Freeway in the 400 block of Paula Avenue in Glendale. During the five hour standoff, police say the man opened fire at least three times, letting off about 20 rounds each time in the direction of the freeway. Closed freeways have been reopened.
980KFWB Friday at 5:40pm
GLENDALE (KFWB) 5.29.03, Updated 7:15p -- A former security guard armed with seven guns fired indiscriminately from his apartment and traded shots with police before he was found dead about five hours later Thursday, authorities said.
The gunfire forced police to evacuate the neighborhood and shut down a nearby stretch of Interstate 5, which police Chief Randy Adams said was in the "kill zone." More than 100 rounds were fired, he said.
The man, whose name was not immediately released, was found inside his apartment after officers lobbed tear gas inside the second-floor unit and entered. Adams said the cause of death was under investigation but that gunshot wounds were a "reasonable assumption."
No one else in the Los Angeles suburb was reported wounded during the siege.
The apartment, located in a sprawling, ungated complex so close to the interstate that cars can be heard roaring by, was riddled with dozens of bullet holes and its front window appeared to have been shot out.
The chief said the man's motive was unknown but he had just left his job as a security guard.
"It is our understanding that he was a former employee at Pinkerton. He was upset over some type of scheduling conflict" and quit, Adams said.
Police arrived at the complex of about 200 units, called Griffith Park Apartments, shortly after 11 a.m. when a 911 caller reported a man firing shots.
The first two officers arriving were fired upon. They ducked and called for help, then were rescued by other officers after a gunbattle that ended when the man retreated. The officers who were pinned down reported being fired upon by a semiautomatic assault rifle, Adams said. The exact number of shots was unknown.
"It happened in such a rapid succession, we have no idea how many rounds were fired," Adams said.
A crisis negotiation team unsuccessfully tried to make contact by phone and bullhorn throughout the day.
Officers helped other residents flee the triangle-shaped complex in an equestrian neighborhood near Los Angeles' Griffith Park.
Meanwhile, the California Highway Patrol kept traffic halted in both directions on Interstate 5.
"He definitely had the ability to shoot in the direction of the freeway and potentially take down motorists," Adams said.
Officers finally entered the apartment shortly after 4 p.m. and found the man lying on the floor.
The interstate was quickly reopened but by then traffic in the eastern end of the San Fernando Valley was snarled.