Suspect Shot to Death by Police

A suspect in a Los Angeles robbery was shot to death Saturday morning as he pulled a .357 magnum out of a briefcase he was carrying when confronted by Ontario and Montclair police, authorities said.

Ontario police have begun a routine administrative investigation into the shooting of Douglas Ross Bonde, 50, who died about 9 a.m. Saturday after two Ontario officers and a Montclair officer shot at him numerous times, said Cpl. Diane Dudone of the Ontario Police Department. Police would not release the officers’ names but said that the two Ontario officers had six and 10 years’ experience.

On Friday night, the television series “America’s Most Wanted” had profiled Bonde’s alleged role in an armed robbery last November in Los Angeles, in which he reportedly took jewelry, checks and other belongings from the occupants of a home.

Los Angeles police, Dudone said, passed a viewer’s tip on to Ontario police soon after the program aired. The tip said that Bonde was probably staying in an apartment complex in the 1300 block of West 5th Street and was wanted by Los Angeles authorities.

Ontario police staked out the apartment, and just before 9 a.m. a man matching Bonde’s description left the complex with a brown briefcase and walked along 5th Street into Montclair, Dudone said.

With two Ontario police cars and one Montclair cruiser tailing him, police called out to Bonde, ordering him to stop and surrender after he had walked about half a mile. Bonde then reached into the briefcase and continued walking despite the officers’ orders to drop the briefcase and put up his hands, she said.

Police had blocked traffic in the area, and Bonde began to walk toward a stopped car with a woman inside, his hand still in the briefcase, Dudone said.

Fearing he would try to take the woman hostage, police ordered Bonde a final time to put up his hands. But Bonde instead began to pull a gun out of the briefcase, Dudone said, and the three officers opened fire. No officers or bystanders were injured.