Pasadena Escapee Is Killed by L.A. Officers

A convict who escaped from the Pasadena Superior Court Building was shot to death Tuesday by Los Angeles police officers when they found him hiding under a house in the Mt. Washington area.

Danny Angel Vega, 26, once described by authorities as a “risk to the world,” was serving three consecutive life sentences for kidnaping. He had escaped from the prisoner lockup at the Superior Court building Monday morning after brandishing a .25-caliber pistol, knocking down a guard and unlocking two steel security doors. He fled in leg irons to a pickup truck waiting across the street, police said.

The hunt for Vega ended about 10 a.m. in a burst of gunfire after he pointed a weapon at officers who discovered him under a house in the 3400 block of Glenalbyn Drive, police said.

An intense manhunt began at 7 a.m. after a resident saw a man sleeping in a dark blue Toyota pickup truck in the 500 block of Vista Gloriosa Drive, said Police Department spokesman Lt. Dan Cooke.

Called Security Firm

The resident called a private security firm, Blue Shield Patrol, which sent a guard to the scene. When the guard rapped on the truck window, Vega pointed a pistol at him. Vega took the guard’s .357-Magnum pistol and ran, said police spokesman Bob Nimtz.

The guard chased Vega through the neighborhood, then called for help.

The manhunt disrupted the normally quiet residential area northeast of downtown Los Angeles. Dozens of officers, a helicopter and canine units were called to the area.

“I was just getting ready to go to work, and the first thing I saw was a man running around with a gun in his hand,” said resident Josephine Palafox.

The search went on for more than two hours and, a police official said, “We were just about ready to call the search off” when the dogs discovered Vega hiding under the home of Robert Landry.

Landry said he heard shots, looked out the window and saw a police officer pulling his dog back. Then, 30 seconds to a minute later, he heard more shots.

Police said that after the dog went into the crawl space, the dog’s handler saw Vega reach for a revolver. The officer fired three times, wounding Vega. Two more officers peering under the house saw “Vega moving and, fearing that he was about to shoot,” fired four times, police said.

Authorities are trying to determine how Vega got a gun into the lockup facility, as well as the identities of two men who witnesses said were waiting for him in the truck. The truck was registered to a County Jail chaplain, Robert Alanis, who told investigators he had loaned it to an acquaintance of Vega, a sheriff’s spokesman said. Alanis is not a suspect, police said.

Vega’s death ends a criminal career that included numerous arrests over the last nine years for burglary, extortion, kidnaping, robbery, car theft, illegal possession of a firearm and forgery.

Started Young

He was first arrested at 17 when he was caught with a set of metal knuckles he was going to use to beat up his lover’s husband, according to court documents.

At the time of his escape Monday, Vega was serving three life sentences for kidnaping in connection with a car theft scheme in which he test-drove expensive cars and then stole them by threatening the salesman or owner riding with him.

Vega’s parole officer, Barry J. Nidorf, described him in a 1986 parole report as a “one-man crime wave.”

“He has acted as a predator who regards society as his hunting ground,” Nidorf wrote. “Incarceration is necessary to protect society from the defendant.”

When Vega escaped Monday, he was waiting to appear at a pretrial hearing in Pasadena in connection with a scheme to extort money by posing as a hit-man and demanding money to spare his victims’ lives.

One of his victims was rock star David Lee Roth’s father, Dr. Nathan Roth of San Marino.

Vega had been in a secure interview room at the courthouse. After feigning illness, he convinced a deputy to permit him to go to the bathroom. Vega then pulled a pistol, subdued Deputy Roberta Rhodes and unlocked two security doors from a main control panel, authorities said.

Nimtz said Vega had been to the lockup so many times “he could see the controls and knew how they worked.”