Man in Shoot-Out With Deputies Found Dead After Fire

A narcotics suspect, who reportedly told neighbors that he hated police, shot it out with two Riverside County sheriff’s deputies Wednesday afternoon and then was found dead after an explosion and fire burned his home and three other structures.

Curtis Arthur Bell, 30, held his girlfriend hostage for a brief time inside the barricaded duplex, Sheriff’s Capt. John Jones said, but she managed to flee unharmed.

One of the deputies was slightly injured when he fell while running from the house in a hail of gunfire.

Deputies said the incident began about 2:20 p.m., when Deputies Jim Parsons and Gary Thompson went to 4046 Twining St., just west of Riverside, to serve a warrant on Bell for failure to appear in court in connection with his Feb. 7 arrest for allegedly selling narcotics and possessing a sawed-off shotgun with the serial number filed off.

Shots Fired

A woman, identified as Elizabeth Hartgrave, 25, reportedly allowed the officers into the home to search for Bell, and they found him hiding under a bed. He reportedly opened fire, and the two deputies dived for cover and fired back.

Bell then ran into the living room and seized the screaming woman as a hostage, Jones said. The deputies escaped through the back door and took shelter behind trees, while being fired at with what they described as a high-powered or large-caliber weapon.

Members of the sheriff’s Special Weapons and Tactics team converged on the scene.

A fiery explosion shook the house shortly after 3 p.m., and the woman ran out.

The duplex was destroyed, as were an adjacent wood-frame home and a small garage. Another home next door was damaged. Fire officials estimated the total damage at about $150,000.

Body Found

The body believed to be Bell’s was found in the debris.

Although it was not immediately known what caused the explosion, Sheriff’s Detective Dana Fredenhall said the property’s owner, J. L. Wolter, told him he believed that there were chemicals of some sort in the house.

Fredenhall said when Bell was arrested in February, officers found 1 1/2 grams of methamphetamines worth about $150, less than an ounce of marijuana and the shotgun.

Jonnie Jonson, 22, a neighbor who lived with her husband in the frame house destroyed by the flames, called Bell “a very nice guy” but said he “didn’t like policemen.”