Ronni Chasen slaying suspect worried about police, talked of gun, $10,000 windfall

Detectives investigating the slaying of publicist Ronni Chasen began to focus several days ago on a Hollywood man, who killed himself Wednesday night when police went to serve a search warrant at his apartment.

Law-enforcement sources said the man, known to neighbors as Harold, had been under police surveillance for some period of time and that Beverly Hills detectives had planned to talk to him, but he took his own life.

One neighbor told The Times the man had been evicted from the apartment but returned several times to ask whether police had been looking for him.

Resident Brandon Harrison said Harold described himself to other tenants as an ex-convict who served two stints in state prison, the most recent for firearms and drug convictions. Harold vowed that he would never go back to prison, according to Harrison.

"He told me several times, 'If it ever came back down to me going to prison, I would die first,' " Harrison said.

He said Harold told him that he was supposed to be getting $10,000, at one point saying it was for a job he did and on another occasion saying it was from a lawsuit.

Another neighbor, Terri Gilpin, told KTLA News the man bragged about having a gun and threatened to use it. "He would talk crazy stuff. He kept always bragging about having a gun," Gilpin said.

Sources, who spoke on the condition that they not be named, said that although the man is considered a suspect in Chasen's slaying last month, the investigation remains active. It's unclear whether they believe the man shot Chasen or was an accomplice.

The shooting occurred about 6 p.m. at the Harvey Apartments on Santa Monica Boulevard.

When police officers approached the man in the lobby of the apartment building, he backed up and refused their orders to raise his hands. He pulled out a pistol and shot himself in the head, the sources said. He died at the scene.

Ronni Chasen's slaying shocked Hollywood and sparked endless speculation.

The publicist was shot to death early Nov. 16 while driving her Mercedes-Benz near the intersection of Whittier Drive and Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills.

She was on her way home from a party after the premiere of the movie "Burlesque." Chasen is believed to have left the event about midnight and been traveling west on Sunset. Friends believe she planned to head south to her condominium on Wilshire Boulevard near the grounds of the Los Angeles Country Club.

Several residents dialed 911 at the time of the attack, saying they heard gunshots. Moments later, another resident called 911 to report hearing the car crash into a light pole.

People living on Whittier Drive who heard the crash ran to the scene and found Chasen slumped over the steering wheel, bleeding. The passenger-side window was shattered.

RELATED:

Suspect in Ronni Chasen slaying had been under police surveillance

Ronnie Chasen slaying suspect takes own life

Homicide Report: Share a thought or memory about Chasen

-- Andrew Blankstein and Abby Sewell

Photo: A body is removed from the Hollywood hotel where a suspect in the slaying of publicist Ronni Chasen shot himself to death as police ordered him to surrender on Dec. 1, 2010. Credit: Jay Clendenin / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Melinda]

Well that's convenient.

[Ray]

Was this clown in parole? Did the Parole system fail again?? He might have been the shooter but he sure as hell was not the brains of the outfit. This clown is in a different social circle. What would be his motive???? The plot thickens... Would this nut have the brains to stage such hit? From what I hear no casings were found. Maybe I watch too many movies but hired guns are not blabbing about guns and how much they get paid for hits. Or do they?

[palmstring]

It looks as if somebody's still out there to rub off the competition while Chasen was promoting movies for possible award contention, particularly the Oscars. Why shooting her down in an exclusive area like Beverly Hills?

[Lisa]

This probably has nothing to do with Chasen's slaying. Like another commenter said the police were looking at this guy because he was a ex-con bragging about having and using guns and money coming to him. The original incident sounds like road rage by someone who is a really good shot.

[Chris]

A bunch of conspiracy theorist we are ;)

Sounds like a hit pure and simple. Doubt there is much of a case left, don't expect the real culprit to ever be found.

[planetnymph]

It would be interesting to know more about Ms. Chasen. She either pissed someone off or got in the way. At least her life, which she seemingly dedicated to Hollywood, will now be a part of Hollywood folklore, under the mysteries category.

[Wilford]

Was he confronted by Beverly Hills cops or the LAPD?

[Andrew]

Fall guy. LA Times takes the bait

[GR]

I'm guessing he was hired to kill Chasen, bragged about it to someone and that someone is an informer.
Question then would be who hired him and why.

[Creoleguy32]

And lets just say that the lying LAPD was on target with this guy, which they are not, then who was paying him the money and what about the one who ordered the hit, which cops denied was a targeted killing?

[Pablito]

I'm willing to bet it's not easy to put five bullets into someone's chest from an adjacent vehicle...does this guy really sound like an expert marksman? I'm just one voice but I'm skeptical. I hope there's enough physical evidence found to verify he was at least the one who really carried out the hit, though not the one who financed it.

[Mike_from_SGV]

My theory:
1. Chasen ran a winning Oscar campaign (or screwed over someone in some other context).
2. Someone in one of the losing camps/victim of screwover got really peeved.
3. And hires this guy to 'do a job'.

[Mike_from_SGV]

Oh, and why the immediate suicide? Probably because the mob had told the guy that if he talked, he'd be slowly cut into pieces. A gun to the head sounds like a better outcome.

[Jimbob]

If there's anything people who follow law enforcement should know by now, it's that any case no matter how mysterious and seemingly unsolvable can be solved with good hard detective work. cf. the Juliana Redding case. So to say they'll never know who hired him it foolish. There are things like witnesses, phone records, e-mail (if this guy had it), etc. And if they went right from the murder to the hitman, it's one of two things:

- they had surveillance footage from the houses near the shooting which led them to this man
- they already have an idea who hired him and wanted to go to him first in order to charge him and maybe cut him a deal as a witness for the prosecution. It seems in cases like this they like to get the one who orchestrated the crime more than the one who carried it out.

[Toluca Lake Observer]

Let's all stop playing amateur detectives and leave it to the pros. BHPD is working VERY hard on this case and they don't need speculation from those who have some half-baked cops 'n robbers scenario. BHPD plays things close to the vest, and we will know when it is time for us to know.

[cougo]

Brinoto. That's exactly what I was thinking. If a transient raises a screwdriver he is pumped full of lead. Maybe he was a real quick-draw artist.

[Spaceflightengineer]

The cops gunned down no one, a suspect, an apparently very good suspect in the killing of Ms. Chasen, took his own life. Hopefully law enforcement can get to the bottom of Ronni's murder after this. As for the suicide case? ...sounds like an oxygen thief has been disposed of.

RIP Ronni Chasen

[tew]

The fact that he lifted a gun to his head and fired before police fired their weapons probably indictes that if he'd wanted to he could have shot officers.

[Jane]

If you Google "Harold shooting Chasen" or some close combination, you will get something interesting: the movie, Harold and Maude, in which the lead character is named "Harold Chasen." Not a real common surname.

Not only that, the motel itself is just down the street from the sort of place Harold and Maude frequented, Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Who is this chatty ex-con named "Harold" who wants to ask if the police are onto him yet, who says "They'll never take me alive," and who brags about coming into a wad of cash for a job? Isn't there something just a little bit odd about that?

One theory is that Harold is not his name, just one some clever wag of a police detective has named from the character as a "working title" for the suspect, a young man who kills an older woman ("Maude" being Ronni Chasen). A "Mutt and Jeff" odd couple.

Or perhaps this is someone creating a "legend" about himself at the low rent apartment (probably inhabited mostly by Hispanics in that neighborhood). Maybe he is someone working in the technical side of Hollywood, because there are a lot of sound studios and such in that neighborhood.

Anyway, he's dead. Or, is he?

[asian annie]

A retired detective said the shooter had to be a extremely good from the rounds found.And that never in his career would he ever been able to be such a marksman.

[palebluemovie]

No one mentions the beneficiary of Ms. Chasen's will. That is the person most likely to have hired a hit man. That is the person the police are looking at most closely.

[justinamarie]

I agree with sjh .Only reason this guy came into the investigation ? because he is a weirdo with a gun. I can't imagine some Russian mafia/Pissed off film producer/ex boyfriend , choosing Harold the homeless nut case with only a bicycle and big mouth to off Chasen.
He's probably been saying this same stuff for years not just the last two weeks.

[Dean McAdams]

I knew this was a professional hit when it went down. Reminds me of Micky Thompson getting contract murdered by an angry business associate. The trail on this one will lead to a very interesting story. Keep it up!

[nika]

sounds like whoever solicited the hit never paid.

[REALLY]

None of this makes any sense given what has been released. This guy was clearly bubble-off-plumb (bless his heart), which doesn't make an organized and well-executed hit (which seems likely given how it went down) seem reasonable. He ends up shooting a big shot in Beverly Hills? How and why was he even in Beverly Hills? If it's a hit, does this sound like the kind of guy you'd give big bucks to to carry it out? Sounds like at most he was a link to somebody else. Curiouser and curiouser. There's much yet to be revealed, methinks.