Youth’s Kidnapper Killed Himself, Coroner Finds
The federal law enforcement officer who kidnapped a 13-year-old boy Friday died of a self-inflicted gunshot--not police gunfire--after officers entered his hotel room, an autopsy report showed Monday.
David L. Clairmont, an officer with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Los Angeles, died after an 11-hour standoff that ended Saturday morning in a room at the Country Suites near the Ontario Mills shopping center.
The autopsy performed by the San Bernardino County coroner found that Clairmont killed himself with a .38-caliber derringer. There had been some question as to whether he died from shots Ontario police officers fired when they entered the bathroom.
Clairmont, 32, led police on a daylong chase after kidnapping the boy at gunpoint from a bus station in the Coachella Valley town of Bermuda Dunes on Friday morning.
In July he was accused of felony sex crimes with the 13-year-old and was facing a court date in Riverside County Superior Court on Monday.
The standoff began after he eluded police officers Friday evening but was recognized from a television report by an employee of the Country Suites.
The teenager was reunited with his parents Saturday morning.
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