LAPD Officer on Disability Surrenders After Standoff

A 40-year-old Los Angeles police officer, apparently despondent over his career, surrendered Thursday after holding sheriff’s deputies at bay with an assault rifle for five hours.

The standoff began when Hans Steadner, a 17-year veteran who has been on stress-related leave from the Hollywood Division for more than a year, used a cellular phone Wednesday night to call an emergency operator, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Deputy Gabe Ramirez said.

Dressed in fatigues and a bulletproof vest, Steadner asked the 911 operator to connect him to a friend at the Police Department, firing shots in the air to punctuate his demands, Ramirez said.

“He wanted an opportunity to express that he was unhappy with what was happening with his career with the LAPD and his pending retirement,” Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. Dan Reidder said.

Steadner also made numerous suicide and death threats.

“On the one hand, he said he doesn’t want to hurt anybody,” Reidder said. “On the other hand, he said if we brought down a helicopter he’d shoot it or if anybody tried to take him in, he’d shoot them.”

More than 30 sheriff’s deputies, crisis negotiators and special weapons team members were sent to a command post in the 22800 block of West Avenue D, Ramirez said. Steadner’s friend and former partner, LAPD Sgt. Robert Green, arrived and helped talk Steadner into surrendering.

Steadner agreed to surrender shortly after 2 a.m. and was taken into custody. He was taken to Olive View-UCLA Medical Center for psychiatric observation.

Authorities found six more rifles and a handgun at his home.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Howard Fairchild said he did not know whether Steadner will be charged with illegally firing a weapon.

At the center of Steadner’s troubles were frustrations over his career, but Steadner’s police medical benefits recently had run out, leaving him to rely solely on state disability funds, Ramirez said.

Steadner’s friend, Green, said Steadner was a phenomenal officer when they patrolled the streets of Hollywood in 1983. But Steadner--who was plagued by medical problems--was haunted by memories of Vietnam and the friends he lost in the war, Green said. Steadner had grown upset with the slow pace of the department’s review process for a medical pension, Green said.

“He’s just frustrated with the system and upset that he can’t be a policeman any longer,” Green said. “He feels like after all his dedication and service, he’s just been thrown off to the side.”