Man Shoots 4, Dies in Standoff With Police

An estranged husband went on a bloody shooting rampage on a busy South-Central street corner Sunday afternoon, critically injuring his wife and wounding three others before barricading himself in a shed and exchanging gunfire with police, who later stormed in and found him dead, police said.

After shooting his wife, the gunman shot a man strolling down the street with a baby in his arms, police said. He shot a woman walking nearby and then walked to a corner store and shot another woman.

The rampage began two blocks down the street from an earlier shooting incident where five young men were wounded Sunday just after midnight in an apparently unrelated incident that police linked to gang rivalries.

The two shootings left one dead and nine victims wounded in less than 15 hours.

LAPD spokesman Sgt. John Pasquariello said the suspect in the shootings Sunday afternoon had just returned from a visit to Mexico that day and was believed to be violating a restraining order when he went to the home of his wife on 43rd Place.

Reports that he had begun shooting were broadcast on emergency radios around 2:40 p.m., Fire Department officials said.

Pasquariello said the man reloaded his pistol three times during the 15-minute rampage.

He shot his wife in the head and body as a daughter cowered, unhurt, in the residence, police said.

He then walked out onto Hooper Street and shot at three people. One man ducked, but the man who reportedly turned away to protect the infant was shot along with a woman near him, Pasquariello said.

The shooter turned the corner onto Vernon Avenue, walked into a market and shot another woman, Pasquariello said.

When officers arrived, the man fled to a backyard shed on Vernon Avenue, barricading himself inside and exchanging gunfire with police during a seven-hour standoff.

Police used a SWAT team and an armored vehicle to storm the shed at 10:10 p.m. and found the man dead of a gunshot wound, spokesman Don Cox said. He said the coroner will determine whether the wounds were self-inflicted or the result of police gunfire.

The man’s wounded wife was taken to County USC-Medical Center, where she was listed in critical condition. Pasquariello said the injuries of the other three were not expected to be life-threatening.

The woman’s home was two blocks away from the shootings early Sunday on 43rd Place. Police said gunfire erupted after a party, wounding five people in their late teens and early 20s.

Three victims were at County-USC in critical condition, and two were listed in stable condition at White Memorial Medical Center.