Man Found Dead in Apartment After His Girlfriend, 2nd Man Are Shot in Standoff

A man who kept police and sheriff’s deputies at bay for more than four hours Sunday after shooting his girlfriend and another man was discovered dead in his Huntington Park apartment of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials said.

Members of the sheriff’s Special Weapons Team discovered the body of Johnson W. Scott, 52, after lobbing tear gas into his apartment in the 6500 block of Rita Avenue at about 8:15 a.m., about four hours after Scott fired shots at his girlfriend and two other people in a nearby parking lot, Sheriff’s Sgt. Irene McReynolds said.

Scott’s girlfriend, Arlene McCowan Harris, 35, had been visiting the apartment with two of her friends, Larry Brown and Nancy Douglas, both 30. Shots were fired at them as they were getting into a car to leave, McReynolds said.

Brown was struck once in the stomach and taken to County-USC Medical Center, where a nursing supervisor said he was in serious condition. Harris was struck in the hand and leg and was in satisfactory condition at Martin Luther King Jr.-Drew Medical Center.

Douglas was cut by flying glass from a car windshield but was not hospitalized.

The apartment building was surrounded after the shooting and the residents of about 50 nearby apartments were evacuated as sheriff’s deputies tried to persuade Scott to surrender, McReynolds said.

Once the standoff began there were no shots fired by Scott or police and sheriff’s deputies, McReynolds said.

Deputies finally lobbed tear gas into the apartment after repeated attempts to reach Scott by telephone failed, McReynolds said.

A shotgun authorities believe was used in the shooting was found in Scott’s apartment.