Man Shot After Firing Rifle at Officers

Police shot and wounded a distraught Northridge man during a gun battle Friday night after the man fired a rifle at officers from a window of his apartment, authorities said Saturday.

Police said Gary Fassett, 25, was in critical condition at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center after being shot several times. He was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer.

No officers were wounded, said Lt. William Hall of the Los Angeles Police Department’s officer-involved shooting unit.

The standoff apparently grew out of an argument between Fassett and his wife at a Reseda pizza parlor earlier in the evening, police said.

Hall said the man’s wife left the restaurant with their children in the family car, and Fassett offered several youths $20 to drive him to his apartment in the 8700 block of Etiwanda Avenue. But when the youths dropped him off, he returned from his apartment brandishing a .22-caliber rifle, Hall said. He also brandished the weapon at the apartment’s manager, who called police, Hall said.

When officers Leo Slagel, 55, and Hector Jaramillo, 23, arrived in the building’s rear parking lot about 10:30 p.m., Fassett appeared at his second-floor window and told them to leave, Hall said.

When they did not, Fassett grabbed the rifle and pointed it in the officers’ direction, prompting Slagel to fire one round from his .12-gauge shotgun, Hall said. Jaramillo fired two rounds from his 9mm pistol, Hall said.

Fassett disappeared from the officers’ view for several minutes and then fired two rounds at them, Hall said. The officers returned fire, he said.

Two backup officers, John Futrell, 40, and Michael Binford, 41, fired a total of nine rounds at Fassett in the building’s hallway after he pointed the rifle at them as he left his apartment, Hall said. Fassett was shot several times.