2 Die in Holiday Violence; Officers Wound Woman

Several shootings, a stabbing and a hostage crisis occurred in Los Angeles and Orange counties Christmas night.

More than 50 neighbors were evacuated from a South Los Angeles neighborhood after a man barricaded himself in a house with two hostages late Sunday afternoon, police officials said.

The Los Angeles Police Department’s SWAT team spent hours negotiating with the man, who allegedly stabbed a female victim before apparently taking his wife and 3-year-old daughter hostage in a house on 85th and Hoover streets in Vermont Knolls, officials said.

The standoff was continuing late Sunday.

In Compton, a man was shot to death on the 400 block of Pear Street, the city’s 69th homicide of the year, sheriff’s officials said. Last year there were 39 homicides in the city. Earlier in the day, another man was shot in the 13100 block of South Largo Avenue in nearby Willowbrook.

An Anaheim man was stabbed to death on the 2700 block of West Ball Road, Anaheim police said. A woman was arrested in the slaying.

And in Sunland, Los Angeles police officers shot a woman wielding what a neighbor said was a toy pistol.

Police responding to a disturbance call on the 10400 block of Parr Avenue shot a woman holding “what appeared to be a revolver,” said Officer Barri Moore.

A resident in the victim’s building said he heard someone warn the police the gun was fake before the shots were fired.

“I kept hearing someone say, that’s not a real gun, that’s not a real gun,” said Robert Porrazzo. He then heard three or four shots, he said.

Police said the victim was taken to Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills.

She was in stable condition, hospital officials said Sunday night.