Suspected Killer of Officer Committed Suicide : Investigation: LAPD spokesman says autopsy reveals that the man shot himself in the head moments after he was wounded in the neck by a police rifle shot.

A man suspected of murdering a Los Angeles police officer died from a self-inflicted pistol shot, not--as originally thought--from the wound he received seconds earlier from police rifle fire during a standoff at a Hollywood motel, an LAPD spokesman said Monday.

An autopsy performed Monday showed that the fatal head wound suffered Sunday by Manuel Vargas Perez, the suspected killer of Los Angeles Police Officer Charles D. Heim, came from his own .380-caliber semiautomatic handgun, according to Capt. Bruce Hagerty, an LAPD spokesman.

On Sunday, Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams told reporters that a police rifle shot fatally wounded the 26-year-old gang member. Williams had made no mention of a second wound.

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Officers stormed Perez’s room at the Lucky 7 Motor Inn on Sunset Boulevard “a matter of seconds” after their rifle shot hit him in the throat and a stun grenade hurled toward his door exploded near the doorway, Hagerty said. He said the officer then heard a third blast--presumably from Perez’s pistol--and moments later, found his sprawled body.

“They did not immediately realize he had shot himself because there was so much blood,” said Hagerty, who saw Perez’s body. “The head was very bloody. It was not discernible there was more than one wound.”

Officers did not closely examine the body Sunday, Hagerty said. He said coroner’s deputies did not finish their initial examination in the motel room until after Williams held his afternoon news conference, so Williams was unaware of Perez’s self-inflicted wound when he told reporters that the fatal shot had come from a police rifle.

“The chief put out the information that he had at the time, and he said that the investigation was not complete,” Hagerty said.

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Hagerty said his information about the autopsy came from two detectives who witnessed the medical procedure Monday.

Officials at the coroner’s office declined to discuss findings of the autopsy, saying the formal report had not been filed.

Asked about the police statement about the self-inflicted wound, Lt. Deborah Peterson of the coroner’s investigations division replied, “I’m not saying it’s wrong. But nothing has been released from this office. The doctor has not finished his paperwork.”

Prior to his death, Perez had threatened suicide, both to police negotiators over the telephone during the three-hour standoff on Sunday and to friends he talked with on Friday before the killing of Officer Heim, Hagerty said. Perez also told negotiators that he would kill another police officer rather than surrender, Hagerty said.

“We knew he was suicidal, we knew he was irrational,” Hagerty said.

Cornered in the Lucky 7 on Sunday morning, Perez refused to surrender, fired on officers and then emerged from his room in a low crouch bearing a handgun, police said. As he stepped outside, police opened fire and Perez received a wound to the neck that “was not immediately fatal but was potentially fatal,” Hagerty said.

Perez crawled back into the room and shot himself in the head, the police spokesman said.

Officials said Monday that they still are investigating the circumstances surrounding Heim’s death Friday night when he and his partner, Felix F. Pena, were met by a fusillade of bullets as they tried to enter Perez’s room at another Hollywood motel after receiving a tip about drug dealing there. Perez reportedly fled into the night after the attack.

Heim died a few hours later at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Pena, who was wounded in his right hand, was treated and released Saturday.

Funeral services for Heim are scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Thursday at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, with burial following at Eternal Valley Memorial Park in Newhall. Heim is to be buried next to a young daughter who died of cancer.

A Police Department spokesman estimated that at least 2,000 officers from around the state would attend the funeral for Heim, 33, who served with the LAPD for 11 years.

The service will include a helicopter formation flyover, but will be missing another tradition that is usually part of funerals of officers killed in the line of duty. Because Heim himself led the riderless horse in somber procession at other funerals, his widow has asked that the horse not be included at his service.

The Los Angeles Police Protective League has set up a trust fund for Heim’s family, which includes his wife--herself an LAPD officer who is pregnant with the couple’s first child--and his 12-year-old son from a previous marriage.

Donations can be sent to the “Officer Charles Heim Fund,” c/o Getzoff Accounting, 16255 Ventura Blvd., Suite 525, Encino 91436.