Man Kills Son, Himself After Machete Attack on Daughter

A father slashed his teen-age daughter with a machete and set fire to her apartment Thursday, then killed himself and his 13-year-old son as police closed in, authorities said.

Police said the father, whose name was not immediately released, barricaded himself in the Victory West Apartments in the 14100 block of Victory Boulevard with his son at about 7 p.m. after injuring his daughter in a violent domestic dispute.

Police Sgt. Brett Papworth said the man announced that he would kill anyone who came in.

“He told police ‘You’ll have to come in and get me, I’m not coming out,’ ” said police spokeswoman Sharyn Michelson.

Police said the man held officers at bay until about 8:45 p.m., when members of the Special Weapons and Tactics team threw in a “flash-bang” grenade, which explodes loudly with a bright flash designed to startle and disorient suspects.

As the SWAT team rushed the apartment, smoke began to billow from the windows, and when officers entered the unit, they found the father and son dead and a mattress engulfed in flames, Papworth said. The daughter, however, was taken to Valley Presbyterian Hospital, where she was in stable condition with cuts on her arm and head, a hospital spokesman said.

Officials said it was unclear whether the victims had died of smoke inhalation or other causes.

Papworth said the man apparently had gotten into an argument with his 17-year-old daughter in her first-floor apartment, hit her on the head with a wrench and attacked her with a machete.

Neighbors and police said the daughter lived in the apartment with her husband and 6-month-old child, and that her father had come over to discuss family problems that involved her mother.

“A woman called 911 and said a man, her husband, had murdered one of the children,” Papworth said.