At Least Five Dead in California Standoff

STEFANO PALTERAAn Inglewood police officer walks outside the house in Inglewood, Calif. where five bodies were found dead, Monday August 22, 2005. The dead included adults and children, Inglewood police said. GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press


INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) -- Police stormed a home Monday where an armed man was holed up inside and found five people dead, including two children. Authorities believe they were victims of a murder-suicide.

The dead included the suspect, his sister-in-law, her husband and their two children, said Lt. Mike McBride of the Inglewood Police Department. No further details on the suspect or the victims were immediately released.

The standoff began early Monday when the wife of a man from nearby Lennox called to report him missing and told authorities he was distraught over financial problems, McBride said.

The man was tracked to his nearby sister-in-law's home, a yellow, single-family house in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood. The man's car was parked nearby, and the door to the home was found slightly ajar.

Authorities knew the man had a handgun so they monitored the house until about 3 p.m., when SWAT and other officers rushed inside and found the man and the others dead.

The quiet Inglewood neighborhood where the killings occurred was abuzz Monday afternoon as families camped out on their doorsteps trying to get information on what happened.

McBride described the area as a middle-class neighborhood of single-family homes. He said it is rarely the target of gang violence or other violent crime.

Darned if you do, danged if you don't....

I don't see the part about being " too slow to go in."  Does it say anywhere that SWAT was on scene before shots were fired.  There is a lot of info missing in that news release.  It doesn't say if they had any communication with the shooter, just that they found his car, the door open on the house, and knew he had a gun.

Quoted: Darned if you do, danged if you don't....

[lumpy] WORD [/lumpy]