House in which suspect is barricaded is on fire; man claimed to kill relatives

One veteran SWAT officer was killed and another wounded during a shootout with a man who called police and said he had killed three members of his family, police said Thursday.

The house later caught fire, although it was unclear what had caused the blaze.

This is apparently the first LA SWAT officer killed in the line of duty since the unit was formed 27 years ago.

UPDATE: The man is dead, along with three others and the SWAT officer:

Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell said police soon exchanged gunfire with the suspect again and he went down. The suspect was taken into custody and pronounced dead on the scene, McDonnell said.

Tags: CA

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 7th, 2008 at 11:07 am and is filed under Crime and Violence, Law Enforcement. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.