Local News in Brief : Suspect in Fatal Beating Kills Himself

A man barricaded in his girlfriend’s La Mirada apartment apparently killed himself Tuesday after refusing to surrender to deputies investigating the fatal beating of the woman, officials said.

Members of the sheriff’s Special Weapons Team stormed the apartment about 10 a.m. and found the man dead in the kitchen and the woman dead in the living room, Deputy Van Mosley said.

It was not immediately clear how the man committed suicide, but investigators believe his girlfriend had been beaten to death during an argument. Their names were withheld until relatives could be notified.

Deputies at the Norwalk sheriff’s station were first alerted to the incident about 7 a.m. when the woman’s 13-year-old daughter called and said her mother had been hurt in a fight with her boyfriend in the apartment in the 11500 block of Santa Gertrudes Avenue.