Update: Man in police stand-off in La Crescenta is dead

An armed man was found dead Friday night after he barricaded himself in a Verizon store in La Crescenta for several hours, according to Sheriff’s officials.

“We saw the suspect was deceased by his own hands,” said Sgt. Burton Brink with the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station, adding that no deputies fired shots during the incident.

Deputies received a call around 4 p.m. about a man who had stolen drugs from a Rite-Aid store in the Marketplace Shopping Center, located at Foothill Boulevard and Rosemont Avenue, Brink said.

The man then fled to the nearby Verizon store. Everyone in the Verizon store was evacuated and later deputies evacuated the entire shopping center.

Foothill Boulevard from Rosemont to Raymond Avenue was closed.

The name of man, described as a Caucasian and about 5’, 10” tall, was not immediately released.

The man had been talking to members of the Crisis Negotiation Team, but then communication stopped.

When members of the Paramedic SWAT team entered the store, they found the man was dead, Brink said.

No other injuries were reported, Brink said.

For a local mother and daughter, the standoff was particularly nerve-wracking. Lisa Dean and her 14-year-old daughter, Ashley, who attends Crescenta Valley High School, were at Ralphs in the shopping center moments before the incident.

Ashley left her mother to go to Verizon just as after the gunman took refuge in the cellular phone store. Police directed Ashley to go to the nearby Rite-Aid for her safety.

The mother and daughter were separated for about an hour before being reunited.

Brink said the investigation into the incident is continuing.

--Kelly Corrigan and Mark Kellam