Man Kills Himself on Police Station’s Steps

A Reseda man, despondent over losing his job, walked nearly a mile from his home to a Los Angeles police station Monday and fatally shot himself on the building’s front steps, authorities said.

Front desk officers at the West Valley Division station in the 19000 block of Vanowen Avenue heard the shot and saw the man drop to the pavement outside the glass front doors about 2 a.m., police said.

The officers ducked to safety, thinking that someone was shooting at the station, but later determined that Alan Matta, 21, had shot himself with a rifle. He was taken to Northridge Hospital Medical Center, where he died about an hour later, police said.

The incident was under investigation, but police said it appeared that the man became despondent and left the house he shared with his mother and stepfather.