Marine Suspected in Slaying Is Fatally Shot After Pursuit

A 29-year-old Marine was fatally shot early Sunday after police said he killed a transgender prostitute in Hollywood, led officers on a high-speed chase and then pointed a gun at them in a parking lot near the LAPD Northeast Division station in Atwater Village.

Police did not identify the Marine, who was from Reseda and was a military policeman at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms. Investigators said it was not clear whether he was killed by officers or himself.

“It’s a sad situation,” said Los Angeles Police Department Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell. “Here’s a guy who had his life ahead of him and in a very short period of time threw it all away.”

The Marine had apparently picked up the unidentified prostitute, whom he believed was a female, in Hollywood, police sources said.

After an apparent dispute, he allegedly shot the victim in the head and dumped the body in a cul-de-sac off of Melrose Avenue. Police pursued him on surface streets and the freeway through Hollywood after a witness described his vehicle.

During the chase the Marine called his mother and sister and said he had shot a man who had tried to rob and carjack him, police said. The chase ended at a parking lot several blocks from the police station at San Fernando Road and Fletcher Drive.

LAPD spokeswoman Sara Faden said police first shot beanbag rounds at the Marine and then fired bullets at him after he pointed a handgun at them.