LAPD Officer Kills Boyfriend of Former Lover, Self

An off-duty Los Angeles police officer fatally shot his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend in front of the man’s Simi Valley home Saturday and then took his own life, authorities said.

Geno Patrick Colello, a 35-year-old Rampart Division officer who also lived in Simi Valley, and Keith Thomas Ewing, a 34-year-old computer technician, both died at the scene, authorities said.

“I heard something that sounded like fireworks, like five, six or seven bangs, and then I saw my neighbor dead in his driveway and another man dead in a truck,” said Jeff Thompson, who lives across the street.

Colello, a seven-year LAPD veteran, had been angry that the woman was dating Ewing, said Simi Valley Police Sgt. Bob Gardner.

Police rushed to the neighborhood near Rancho Simi Community Park about 3 p.m. after several residents called 911 and reported hearing shots in the 1800 block of Sutter Avenue, Gardner said.

Witnesses said Colello pulled in front of Ewing’s house in a pickup truck, fired at least five shots at Ewing, who was outside washing his own pickup truck, and then turned the gun on himself.

Officers found Ewing lying face-down in the driveway, bleeding so profusely that a trail of blood flowed to the street. Colello was slumped in the front seat of his truck, parked on the street.

Officers couldn’t immediately tell if Colello was dead, so they used hand-held bulletproof shields to slowly advance toward his truck, authorities said.

Half a dozen residents were evacuated from their homes and an ambulance was ordered to wait a block away until officers secured the scene.

Inside the truck, police found Colello dead from a gunshot wound to the head and a large-caliber semiautomatic pistol at his side, Gardner said.

Authorities said Colello had lived with Diane Williams, his ex-girlfriend, for about four years before she left him and moved into her own home. Williams had been dating Ewing for several months, neighbors said. She was not at the scene when the shooting occurred, police said.

About two hours after the shootings, Williams arrived at the scene and broke down when officers told her what had occurred. She was consoled by a chaplain before leaving the area.

Colello’s uncle, Robert Brunton of Simi Valley, said his nephew was an outgoing and well-liked man and that family members, including Colello’s father, a retired LAPD officer, were devastated by the news.

In 1996, Colello, who was a rookie officer in the San Fernando Valley at the time, shot and killed a 48-year-old man on parole for a double murder, LAPD Lt. Horace Frank said Saturday.

The parolee, William Betzner, has been rummaging through a construction site when Colello and his partner stopped and questioned him. Betzner jumped into a car and sped away with Colello partially stuck inside. Colello shot and killed him.

Frank said late Saturday that he did not know the outcome of the internal investigation into the shooting. Colello was assigned to the Rampart Division in March 1997 and had been working in the community relations division.

Aaron Rice, a Sutter Avenue resident, said he and a roommate were returning home from the store shortly before 3 p.m. when they saw Ewing washing his truck in his driveway.

Rice entered his house and a few minutes later heard several cracks of gunfire.

“It’s so weird,” he said. “I just spoke to the dude and I was probably the last person to talk to him.”

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Times staff writers Holly J. Wolcott and Timothy Hughes reported this story.