Los Angeles Times: Gunfire Hit Houses Next to Suspect's

[url]http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-090201shoot.story[/url]

Gunfire Hit Houses Next to Suspect's
Shooting: Aftermath shows officers' confusion in violence that claimed deputy's
life. Authorities find body believed to be that of James Allen Beck.
By CAROL CHAMBERS,JOSH MEYER and MITCHELL LANDSBERG
Times Staff Writers

September 2 2001

The violence that claimed the life of a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy in
the Santa Clarita Valley caught authorities off guard, plunging a quiet
neighborhood into such chaos that officers fired not only at the suspect but
into homes on both sides of his, officials said Saturday.

The extent to which officers were taken by surprise in the Friday morning raid
was evident Saturday in the charred ruins of James Allen Beck's home, where
investigators found a body believed to be that of the former police officer and
convicted felon.

Federal agents were serving a search warrant on Beck's house when he allegedly
responded with gunfire, triggering a gun battle that ended when his home caught
fire and burned to the ground. A sheriff's official said deputies and the
federal agents fired at least 150 rounds during the fight, the worst of which
lasted 15 to 20 minutes.

Sporadic fire followed for about three hours as more officers arrived, including
some from the California Highway Patrol and the Los Angeles Police Department.

Officials said they found three assault rifles in the ashes, including an AK-47
and AR-15, as well as a shotgun, a .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol and other
handguns, and large amounts of ammunition. They said they also found an old CHP
badge near the body believed to be Beck's.

Authorities say Beck shot sheriff's Deputy Hagop "Jake" Kuredjian. An autopsy
Saturday determined that the officer died of a bullet wound to the head.

Relatives of Beck in the San Diego community of Scripps Ranch released a
statement saying the family was "deeply saddened by the death of Dep. Kuredjian.
We would like to offer our condolences to the deputy's family and to the entire
police community on their tragic loss," the statement said.

"We are struggling to come to terms with James' actions and do not understand
what caused him to do what he did," the statement said.

Residents of surrounding homes in the sedate Stevenson Ranch subdivision where
Beck lived were full of questions in the aftermath of the tragedy. Some were
critical of the way in which a simple legal maneuver--the serving of a search
warrant--quickly escalated into a violent inferno that threatened the entire
neighborhood.

The questions zeroed in on the tactics used in the siege and fire, with
suggestions that the incident veered out of control as law enforcement officials
struggled with a dangerous situation.

The questions zeroed in on the tactics used in the siege and fire, with
suggestions that the incident veered out of control as law enforcement officials
struggled with a dangerous situation.

Law enforcement officials, while acknowledging that they were surprised, said it
was too early to answer many of the questions raised by the episode. They also
said the only person to blame for the explosion of violence was Beck, who was
under investigation for impersonating a U.S. marshal and for being a felon in
possession of a firearm.

"At this time we're not in a position to start addressing tactical issues," said
Capt. Ray Leyva, commanding officer of the sheriff's Headquarter's Bureau. "It
is still too early in the investigation. We have a multi-agency investigation
going on."

A man who lived across the street from Beck said he saw sheriff's deputies
firing at a home next door to the suspect's.

"I hollered out the window, 'You're shooting at the wrong house!' " said the
man, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "They must have heard us or something,
because I could hear one of the deputies say, 'Is it the house with the
Explorer?' And another guy says, 'No, the one next to it.' "

Leyva acknowledged that deputies fired at that house, as well as the house on
the other side of Beck's.

"We did hit the houses on either side," he said. "I don't know exactly what was
happening at the time, I don't know how well [the deputies'] aim was, but they
were returning fire and trying to rescue someone, so I'm sure they were hitting
things during the battle."

The two houses next door to Beck's--at least one of which was occupied by a
couple and a baby during the shooting--were pocked with numerous bullet marks.
The baby's father, who asked not to be identified, said, "The shots came through
our [front] window and into our house."

Terri Gudzin, whose backyard provided a view of Friday morning's shootout and
fire, said "No one tells us anything. . . . We saw [Beck] walking his German
shepherd at all hours of the day. Why wouldn't they serve him [with the warrant]
then?"

Gudzin and other neighbors said Beck could have been unarmed during a walk.

"What makes it a shame is that a deputy had to lose his life and homes had to be
damaged," added Jay Gudzin, her husband. "Maybe things would have turned out
different."

Friday morning's operation was carried out by two U.S. marshals and eight agents
of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Three sheriff's deputies
accompanied them for support. Once the gunfight began, the Sheriff's Department
rushed in reinforcements and took charge of the emergency in their jurisdiction.

The Southern California head of the ATF offered some answers to residents'
questions Saturday and defended his agency's role in the raid.

Donald Kincaid said the ATF had reason to believe that Beck would be cooperative
Friday morning. The reason for such confidence, he said, was that the bureau had
conducted a similar search a year ago at a different address, which Kincaid
could not specify. On that occasion, after federal agents telephoned Beck, he
came outside and cooperated fully. Beck even tied up his aggressive German
shepherd so it wouldn't attack agents during the search, which did not result in
Beck's arrest, Kincaid said. He did not say what, if anything, was found in the
search.

"We did this once before . . . with this individual with no problems," Kincaid
said. "He came out with his hands up, and he supposedly had a vicious dog which
he put away and the search was conducted."

On Friday, Beck greeted agents very differently, refusing to come outside and
then firing a fusillade of automatic weapons fire at them as they advanced on
the house, authorities said. That forced agents to scramble for cover on Beck's
front lawn and call for backup, and Beck kept firing.

Deputy Shot as He Crouched Behind SUV

Early in the battle, Beck allegedly shot and killed Kuredjian, who suffered a
head wound while trying to provide cover to deputies pinned down in the
fusillade, authorities said. The deputy arrived a few minutes after the shooting
started and was hit almost immediately, as he crouched behind an SUV four houses
down from the Beck home, officials said.

Authorities said they believe Beck shot Kuredjian from an upstairs window,
although they were still gathering information about the killing. "No one saw
Beck shoot Jake," said Sheriff's Lt. Carl Deeley. "People right next to him just
saw him go down. There were so many shots going off; it's hard to tell where
they are coming from."

Kincaid called Beck's response "unanticipated resistance" and acknowledged that
it took his agents by surprise, even though they had prepared extensively for
the search.

Kincaid said that his agents were as prepared as they needed to be in executing
the search warrant, and that they had developed more than enough probable cause
to do so. He said the ATF had information that Beck had purchased ammunition for
an assault weapon.

A spokesman for the marshals service said agents intended to arrest Beck if a
single weapon was found. William Woolsey, a marshal's supervisor, said Beck
could not legally possess a gun because of his criminal background, which
included convictions for weapons violations.

The specific reasons for the search are laid out in an affidavit by a federal
agent that was shown to a federal prosecutor and a federal judge, both of whom
approved the search. Kincaid said the affidavit was sealed and he would not
discuss its specifics.

Kincaid said the ATF will aggressively review all tactics used by the agents.

He said the agents and sheriff's deputies were being interviewed Saturday.

During the "shooting review," agents will be asked about their locations, how
many rounds they fired and other details that will allow the ATF to reconstruct
each stage of the incident.

"We are going through this very meticulously. I'm not saying we did anything
wrong, but if we can do something better I want to find out how to do that,"
Kincaid said.

Dozens of investigators picked through the rubble that was Beck's house on
Saturday, ultimately finding what they believe were the badly charred remains of
his body--encased in a bulletproof vest and lying on an assault rifle--and that
of his dog.

Inspector Mike Brown, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Fire Department,
said investigators were still working to determine the cause of the fire
Saturday. Federal authorities had said Friday that it was possible that the
blaze was started by tear gas canisters fired into the building, although
sheriff's deputies had said they believed Beck himself started the fire.

Brown said the handling of Friday's crisis was "absolutely not" a strategy to
let Beck burn to death or to smoke him out of the building.

"As professionals we don't want to risk anybody's life, or not take into
consideration someone's life. We did try by all possible means to assist law
enforcement and try to prevent anybody else from being injured. But here was a
fire we couldn't effectively fight from the position we were."

County fire officials responded to the incident with four engine companies, a
truck company and two paramedic squads at about 8:37 a.m., Brown said.

While smoke began billowing from the building at around 11:50 a.m., authorities
initially thought it was from tear gas canisters, and didn't realize the house
was on fire, Brown said.

Once they realized it was a fire, sheriff's and fire officials decided to direct
a water-spraying aerial ladder and a hose on Beck's house at about 12:30 p.m.,
Brown said. Given the gunplay and the layout of the neighborhood, they were the
only water sources that could fit, he added.

But Brown said further attempts to put the blaze out were stymied by safety
concerns.

"The suspect could have still been in firing range," he said. "It was my
understanding that the gunman had some firearms and the ones used were
definitely automatic weapons, so we're still in harm's way. We didn't want to
place firefighters in that position."

Fire officials realized that the ladder and hose alone could not stop the flames
inside the house, said Capt. Brian Jordan.

"To save that house, we knew we had to be inside it," Jordan said. "You'd think
we could just take our appliances from a distance and squirt water inside and
put it out. But those appliances don't get into the nooks and crannies where the
fire continues to burn."

A water-dropping helicopter would have been similarly limited, but fire
officials didn't try to use one because Beck was firing on news and police
copters already on the scene, Jordan said.

With the heat growing in intensity, the Fire Department eventually decided to
direct the water streams at both Beck's house and the ones on either side to
keep the fire from spreading, officials said.

Law enforcement officials said Saturday they were trying to make life as normal
as possible for residents in the subdivision of master-planned stucco homes that
vary ever so slightly in their beige, cream, gray and pink hues.

In a neighborhood where a real estate agent once boasted that one in every few
houses belonged to a police officer, where cars sport "I · Cops" bumper
stickers, residents remained fearful--so much so that several declined to give
their names. Some questioned whether Beck was really dead.

"He could have had a tunnel or a vault," said one woman, washing the charred
embers off her SUV, which police used as a barricade. "He was that crazy. You
just don't know."

In Brentwood, a woman who identified herself only as a Beck family member met
reporters outside the extensive one-story bungalow where Beck's mother, Donna
Beck, lives.

"We're sorry for what happened," the woman said.

Visitation for Kuredjian is set for 7 p.m. Monday at the Old North Church at
Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills, 300 Forest Lawn Drive, a sheriff's spokesman said.
Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday at St. Mary's Armenian Apostolic
Church in Glendale, with burial at Forest Lawn.

***

Times staff writers Richard Fausset, Michael Krikorian, Kristina Sauerwein and
Richard Winton contributed to this story.
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