Murder Suspect Carrying Gun Fatally Shot by Police

A murder suspect who jumped out of his disabled car with a semiautomatic weapon in his hands was shot to death by a team of officers who had staked out his hideout in South-Central Los Angeles for several hours, police said Friday.

Lt. Dan Cooke said Verlin Caldwell, 19, believed to be a gang member, had been sought as one of the suspects in the Sept. 10 shotgun slaying of 21-year-old Darrel Taylor in a quarrel over a stolen television set.

Cooke said police received a tip that Caldwell was holed up in a house at 655 Colden Ave. and set up a surveillance of the house shortly after 3 p.m. Thursday, with 14 detectives and plainclothes officers of the gang activities section of the Detective Support Division staked out in the neighborhood.

Lt. Charles A. Higbie, head of the unit that investigates officer-involved shootings, said Caldwell left the house at 9:15 p.m., got into a small foreign car and drove off. As he neared the intersection of Colden and Hoover Street, Higbie said, the suspect apparently recognized the unmarked cars in the neighborhood as police units and sped up.

The lieutenant said one of the unmarked cars deliberately rammed Caldwell’s car, disabling it. Caldwell, armed with a 9-millimeter Uzi, immediately leaped out of the car, he said.

“As seven officers approached the vehicle,” Higbie wrote in his preliminary investigative report, “it appeared that Caldwell was attempting to turn and point the weapon in the officers’ direction. The officers fired multiple rounds from their service revolvers, wounding Caldwell, who expired at the scene.”

Cooke said it was not known how many shots were fired by police or how many times Caldwell was hit.

Higbie said Caldwell’s weapon was loaded with a clip containing at least 25 rounds of ammunition and he carried another fully loaded 30-round clip in his coat pocket.

Cooke said it was not known whether Caldwell fired any shots. None of the officers was injured.

Michael Beavers, 23, was arrested earlier as a suspect in the Taylor shooting and is scheduled to be arraigned on a murder charge Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court.