Gunman With Hostage, 3, Killed : Police: The heavily armed man, barricaded in a Reseda apartment with his daughter, is shot by a SWAT team after an eight-hour standoff.

A police SWAT team shot and killed a heavily armed man Tuesday in a gunfight that ended an eight-hour standoff at a Reseda apartment during which he had held his 3-year-old daughter hostage, firing at anyone who approached, authorities said.

Tan Khuat, who had spent the day drinking heavily and brandishing some of the six firearms he had with him, was killed as he exchanged gunfire with the SWAT team, police said.

Moments after the gun battle, a SWAT team member carried the girl unharmed from the building in the 7100 block of Amigo Avenue and delivered her into the arms of her anxious mother.

Los Angeles Police SWAT team members stormed the apartment in which Khuat had barricaded himself with his daughter shortly after 2 p.m. because it was evident that the out-of-work sound engineer would carry out threats to kill the girl and himself, said police Capt. Valentino Paniccia.

Authorities described Khuat, a Vietnamese immigrant, as tormented by family, drug and unemployment problems.

“He was highly volatile,” said Paniccia. “The more he talked with us, the more he threatened to kill the baby.”

Among those watching the drama from nearby streets were some of Khuat’s friends and Harold Blaisch, his lawyer in a minor auto collision case. Blaisch pleaded with police not to shoot. He and some of Khuat’s friends said Khuat was a good family man who simply snapped from the combined problems of losing his job and having to live out of his car after quarreling with his wife.

“He was extremely despondent and upset,” said Blaisch. “But I couldn’t conceive that he’d kill the girl. I think it’s outrageous.”

Police, however, said Khuat was threatening to kill anyone who came near him, and that he had fired at least eight shots, most of them from a window of his second-story apartment. While barricaded in the apartment, Khuat also had called a receptionist in Blaisch’s office earlier in the day to seek help and guidance.

“He said he had shot at a police car . . . and that if he went outside he was facing 15 years in jail,” said the receptionist, Sylvia Freiburg. “He said if he was going down, he wanted to take five people with him.”

Because of his threats, police closed Sherman Way and other streets in a three-block area around the apartment complex shortly after 6 a.m. and evacuated nearby homes and apartment units. At the Reseda Baptist School half a block from Khuat’s apartment, children were kept in a basement all day because of concern that Khuat had a rifle with a telescopic sight.

“Thank God we contained him before anybody got shot,” said Lt. George Ibarra.

The incident began when Khuat went to the apartment of his estranged wife, identified by a friend as Hong Khuat, about 6 a.m. and they argued. The wife told police that Khuat threatened her, and she grabbed her 6-year-old son and ran. Her sister went to the apartment a short time later to retrieve the pajama-clad daughter.

Ibarra said the sister also argued with Khuat, who fired several shots at her as she fled.

The gunman also fired at a television cameraman who arrived outside the apartment after the sister fled, and at a police car, Deputy Police Chief Mark Kroeker said.

Nobody was hit.

Deputy City Atty. Marty Vranicar said Khuat was arrested in April, 1991, on charges of trying to buy drugs from a police officer, and that he completed a diversion program for first-time offenders.

Hoa Tran, described by police as a relative of Khuat, said Khuat had “lost control” of a cocaine habit.

Another longtime friend, Trang Vo, said he had known Khuat since the two escaped from Saigon 13 years ago in a refugee boat. Watching the ordeal from behind a police line, he said Khuat was a generous, kind, happy-go-lucky man who cherished his family.

But he too said Khuat had been using too much cocaine, harming his marriage and career.

“He was a good person, but he used cocaine too much,” Vo said, his eyes welling with tears after police killed Khuat. “He was a good guy. He just had a problem.”