Suspect in Murder Plot Killed by Police

A San Marino man suspected in a murder-for-hire plot against his wife was shot dead by police early Sunday after he allegedly stabbed a detective during questioning in the police station, authorities said.

Richard August, 41, had just been told that he was under arrest for conspiracy in his wife’s attempted murder when he pulled a knife from his waistband and stabbed a San Marino detective in the hand, according to Police Chief Frank Wills. As August made motions to assault another detective, the wounded officer shot the suspect once in the head, Wills said.

August “made a statement that he wasn’t going to be taken alive,” the chief said. Just minutes before, August had been cooperative under questioning, detectives said.

The dead man, an unemployed engineer with reported financial problems, was implicated in a Saturday evening incident in which an intruder broke into the August home and stabbed August’s wife in the chest.

Kathleen August, 39, was treated at San Gabriel Valley Medical Center for that wound and less-serious cuts and then released, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Acting on a tip from teen-agers who reportedly saw the assailant flee the Augusts’ house in a car, police arrested Lanier Clayton, 36, of Pasadena. Clayton, who reportedly implicated Richard August in the assault, was charged with burglary and attempted murder. He was being held Sunday without bail at the Los Angeles County Jail.

At the time of his wife’s stabbing, August was said to be out of the two-story, Tudor-style house with their two elementary school-age children. He was asked to come to police headquarters for questioning for possible involvement in what Wills said may have been a hired assault on Kathleen August for insurance money.

The chief said that August was not patted down or searched for weapons at the police station.

“In most police departments that may be viewed as not the best of tactics and that can be debated in the industry. But typically with someone not in custody, who is a longtime San Marino resident and homeowner and who comes in voluntarily, we don’t normally pat them down,” said Wills, who heads the 26-officer force in the small, affluent city adjacent to Pasadena.

The August home in the 2600 block of Monterey Road is in a southwestern corner of the city..

The shooting is being investigated by the county Sheriff’s Department and the district attorney.

The wounded San Marino police detective, whose identity was not revealed, was treated at the hospital and released.