Police Shoot, Kill Woman Who Threatened Suicide

LA TUNA CANYON, Calif. -- A woman threatening to shoot herself at her home in La Tuna Canyon was fatally shot by SWAT officers after she allegedly pointed a weapon at them, according to police.

The standoff -- which began about 7:30 p.m. Thursday when the woman called police and threatened suicide -- ended in gunfire about noon Friday, said Officer Rosario Herrera of the Los Angeles Police Department's Media Relations office.

No officers were hurt, Herrera said.

When officers from the LAPD's Foothill Station arrived Thursday night at the residence in the 8900 block of La Tuna Canyon Road, west of Wildwood Fire Road, they were met by two adults who told them that the woman had fired shots from a handgun and had threatened to kill herself, Herrera said.

The officers then heard more shots from inside the location and summoned SWAT officers, Herrera said.

Lt. Robert Davis of the Foothill Station said residents living in a home behind the woman's 8,000-square-foot residence were evacuated and crisis negotiators were sent to the scene.

Davis said one of the woman's relatives went to the location to try to help with the contacts between the woman and the officers.

Negotiators worked throughout the night and into the morning to try to resolve the situation, Herrera said.

About 11:45 a.m., the woman, whose name was not immediately released, "walked out with a gun," Herrera said. "Officers told her to stop and put the gun down, but she refused to comply."

The woman walked toward a SWAT vehicle and SWAT officers, and was hit with a "less lethal round" deployed by an officer, Herrera said.

At that point, she allegedly raised her weapon toward officers and was shot, Herrera said.

It was not immediately clear if the woman fired her weapon at officers, according to Herrera.

The wounded woman was taken to a hospital, where she died.

La Tuna Canyon Road remained closed during the standoff in both directions from Elben Avenue to the Foothill (210) Freeway.