California Man Accused of Beating Elderly Woman to Death Arrested After Standoff

A 27-year-old suspect in the beating death of a 70-year-old woman was arrested Thursday by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department SWAT team after barricading himself inside a home in Baldwin Park for several hours.

“Officers from the Baldwin Park Police Department responded about 9:40 p.m. Wednesday to a call of a man attacking someone with a stick in the 3000 block of Mangum Street, near Frazier Street, according to Deputy James Nagao,” ABC 7 reported.

Officials also received reports about a man allegedly vandalizing the property and breaking windows.

When officers arrived, they found three victims outside a house. The elderly woman was unresponsive in the yard and later pronounced dead at the scene, according to Nagao.

“Our victim is a long-time friend of our suspect’s mother,” Lt. Derrick Alfred of the sheriff’s department told NBC Los Angeles. “So, we believe he knew who she was.”

Deputy Nagao said the two other victims, a man and a woman, were transported to a hospital where they received treatment and were later released.

The ABC report continued:

Officers were directed to the suspect’s residence, a rear house on the property, where the man had barricaded himself inside. A sheriff’s department SWAT team was sent to the scene, along with crisis negotiators, Nagao said.

About 4:30 a.m., the department announced the suspect was in custody after a special tactic team negotiated with him and eventually deployed tear gas into the residence. The suspect was taken into custody by the help of a K-9 unit.

The man was reportedly renting the home in the back of the property from his mother, according to the NBC article.

“LASD Homicide Lt. Derrick Alfred said the suspect’s mother owns the property and was renting out the main house. He said the suspect was vandalizing the main house when an argument broke out between the people that lived there and the suspect,” the report stated.

Baldwin Park police booked the unidentified suspect for murder but a motive for the alleged killing has not yet been released.

The elderly victim’s name will be released once officials notify her family, Fox 11 reported.