Third person dies following armed standoff in Watts

A woman shot by a man who opened fire on police officers in Watts and then killed himself, has died at a hospital, police said.

Neither the victim nor the shooter has been identified.

Police called to a house at Grape and 115^th streets just before 3 a.m. Friday found a man’s body in a truck. He had apparently been shot to death. Another man began shooting at the officers, who fired back, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

The man retreated inside the house. About two hours later, a SWAT team entered and found the woman critically injured. The man was dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

Police said earlier that the woman was his wife but later said they were uncertain of the relationship between the two.

Three children, ages 1, 3 and 8, were in the home during the incident and were unharmed.

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Photo: Los Angeles Police Department investigators at a home on the 11500 block of South Grape Street in Watts, where a barricaded gunman fired shots at officers Friday. Credit: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times.

Armed standoff in Watts leaves 2 dead, 1 critically wounded

A man opened fire on police officers in Watts early Friday morning before barricading himself in his house, shooting his wife and killing himself, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Another man was found shot dead in a truck outside the home at Grape and 115^th streets.

When police officers responded to a call of shots fired just before 3 a.m., they found the victim in the truck. A man standing outside the house began shooting at the officers, who returned fire, said police spokesman officer Bruce Borihanh.

The man, who has not been identified, retreated inside the home. Around 5 a.m., a SWAT team entered and found the man’s wife critically injured. The man was dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, police said.

Three children, ages 1, 3 and 8, were in the home during the incident and were in police custody until family members could be located, Borihanh said.

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Photo: Scene in Watts, where a man opened fire on police officers early Friday morning before barricading himself in his house, reportedly shooting his wife and killing himself. Credit: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times

Suspect sought in polling place 'love triangle' shooting

Investigators continued their search Wednesday for a man suspected of wounding a poll worker in an election day shooting outside a Watts elementary school, police said.

Authorities told The Times on Tuesday night they had identified a suspect and were confident he would be arrested. They described the shooting outside 92nd Street Elementary School as a "love triangle" turned violent.

The shooting followed an argument Tuesday morning outside the school's auditorium, where the polling place was located, police said. The shooter fled the scene and the wounded 35-year-old poll worker ran inside.

PHOTOS: Los Angeles voters go to the polls

The victim was taken to an area hospital with injuries described as a non-life-threatening, police said.

The school was briefly locked down and the polling place closed for about 30 minutes as police investigated the shooting.

L.A. mayor’s race live: Garcetti, Greuel hold on to their lead

10:39 p.m.

As election results  in the L.A. mayor’s race trickled in Tuesday night, Controller Wendy Greuel and Councilman Eric Garcetti continued to lead the pack in early returns.

Along with a substantial chunk of mail-in ballots, city elections officials have tallied votes from 2.5% of precincts in the city – just a sliver of the ballots likely to be cast.

Opinion polls cast Garcetti and Greuel as the front-runners in the race which, by all indications, will probably be decided in a May runoff between the top-two finishers.

LIVE RESULTS: Los Angeles primary election

Councilwoman Jan Perry captured enough votes in the early returns to hold onto third place, with attorney Kevin James, the only Republican in the race, slightly behind her.

In the race for city attorney, former Assemblyman Mike Feuer and incumbent Carmen Trutanich were locked in a tight contest. City Councilman Dennis Zine was leading in the race for city controller.

A measure to add a half-cent to the city’s sales tax continued to trail in early returns. The measure, Proposition A, would bring sales taxes in Los Angeles to 9.5%, one of the highest rates in the state, and raise $200 million a year for the city treasury.

9:37 p.m.

With more than 111,000 mail-in ballots tallied in Tuesday’s Los Angeles city election, Councilman Eric Garcetti and City Controller Wendy Greuel pulled out to early leads in the race for mayor--with the two running virtually neck-and-neck.

Councilwoman Jan Perry trailed in third place, according to the early returns.

Still, it was far too early in the vote count for any lead to be secure. Los Angeles has just over 1.8 million registered voters.

LIVE RESULTS: Los Angeles primary election

Before the polls opened Tuesday, the city clerk’s office had received 148,846 mail-in ballots from voters in the city, or 8.2% of the total number of registered voters. More voters voted by mail than in the first round of either the 2001 or 2005 city elections, but there are also many more residents who received mail ballots this year than in those elections.

Of the total 663,086 mail-in ballots issued this year, 22.4% had been returned by the start of election day. In 2001 and 2005, a much higher percentage of ballots — about half — had been returned by election day. But the city sent out only about 200,000 mail ballots in each of those elections.

In the race for city attorney, former Assemblyman Mike Feuer was leading incumbent Carmen Trutanich. City Councilman Dennis Zine was leading in the race for city controller.

--Phil Willon and James Rainey

7:08 p.m.

The city of Los Angeles may be in the grips of its most serious and prolonged financial crisis in memory, but voters didn't clamor to the polls Tuesday to decide who should fix the mess.

The election had the mayor’s office, a majority of City Council seats and a half-cent sales tax on the line, but Angelenos only trickled to voting booths -- which closed at 8 p.m.

The city clerk’s office said it expected to post its first returns -- from mail-in ballots received by last Saturday -- a half hour after voting ended.  The timing of final results remains unpredictable because many of the contests -- particularly the half-cent sales tax, Measure A -- are expected to be close.

JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Los Angeles school board race

Election officials reported no widespread irregularities, although one polling place in Watts closed temporarily in the morning after the shooting of a poll worker. And more than one voting location in the north San Fernando Valley also had to contend with a power outage after nightfall.

Police called the shooting of the 35-year-old poll worker part of a domestic dispute. A hospital treated the worker for injuries that were not life-threatening and the voting place reopened a half-hour later in a mobile polling station next to the auditorium at 92nd Street Elementary School.

The power outage shut down a polling place on Del Sur Street in Pacoima, according to Felipe Fuentes, a council candidate in District 7. Fuentes said he used the light from his mobile phone to help voters find their names on the rolls so they could receive their ballots.

FULL COVERAGE: L.A.'s race for mayor

Fewer than 18% of the city’s registered voters cast ballots in the 2009 mayoral election featuring incumbent Antonio Villaraigosa and nine little-known, underfunded challengers. Villaraigoa won a second term outright in the primary, capturing enough of the vote to make a runoff unnecessary.

Thirty-four percent voted four years earlier in the runoff that made Villaraigosa the first Latino mayor in the city’s modern history.

Turnout for the first round of Los Angeles municipal elections is typically low, though most candidates said they hoped the closely contested mayoral race -- being led in recent polls by Councilman Eric
Garcetti and City Controller Wendy Greuel -- would inspire more interest.

PHOTOS: Los Angeles voters go to the polls

After voting Tuesday morning near his Silver Lake home, Garcetti, 42, said he hoped people would come out.

Polling place shooting sparked by 'love triangle,' LAPD says

Los Angeles police on Tuesday night were still seeking a gunman suspected of opening fire in an attack at a polling place that left a worker wounded.

Authorities told The Times on Tuesday night that they had identified a suspect and were confident that he would be arrested. They described the shooting as a "love triangle" turned violent. 

The shooting at 92nd Street Elementary School in Watts followed an argument Tuesday morning outside the campus auditorium, where the polling place was located, police said.

LIVE RESULTS: Los Angeles primary election

The shooter fled the scene and the wounded 35-year-old poll worker ran inside the auditorium. The victim was taken to a local hospital and treated for what police described as wounds that were not life-threatening.

The violence forced authorities to lock the school down briefly and close the polling place for about 30 minutes, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

FULL COVERAGE: L.A.'s race for mayor

Officials brought a mobile polling place to the scene. Inside the auditorium, a worker in a white suit with a mask and gloves cleaned blood from the floor. A woman was questioned by investigators, but it was unclear what role, if any, she might have had in the shooting.

Anyone with information is asked to call (877) 527-3247.

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Photo: Worker cleans blood from the floor at a polling station in a Watts. Credit: Christina House / For The Times

Poll worker shot outside polling place at Watts elementary school

A poll worker was injured Tuesday morning when he was shot outside a polling place at an elementary school in Watts, Los Angeles police said.

The altercation apparently began inside the polling place in the auditorium of the 92nd Street Elementary School in the 9200 block of Grape Street, LAPD Officer Christopher No said. The confrontation escalated outside, where the man was shot shortly before 9:40 a.m.

The victim, a 35-year-old poll worker, suffered injuries described as non-life-threatening, No said. Police said they do not believe the shooting was random. No said the two may have known each other and described the incident as a "domestic dispute."

No said the suspect had been identified by police but had not yet been apprehended.

The school was locked down during the incident. It was not immediately clear if the polling place was affected.

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Three teens hurt, one critically, in apparent drive-by shooting

A teenage boy was in critical condition Sunday and two others were injured after what appeared to be a drive-by shooting in the Vermont Square neighborhood of South Los Angeles, authorities said.

The shooting occurred about 9:30 p.m. Saturday near the intersection of 53rd and Figueroa Streets, said Lt. Julie Patton, of the Los Angeles Police Department.

The victims included two 15-year-olds and one 17-year-old. One was taken to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, while the others were taken to California Hospital Medical Center in downtown Los Angeles.

No other information was given.

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Woman arrested, man sought after 120-mph chase ends in South L.A.

One woman was taken into custody and police were seeking a male driver after a dangerous high-speed chase stretched from San Bernardino to South Los Angeles, with the vehicle being pursued narrowly missing several pedestrians, including children.

The pursuit began shortly after noon in Chino as authorities searched for two burglary suspects, the  California Highway Patrol said. The pursuit took place on the 71, 91, 60, 710, 105 and 110 freeways as the Lexus ES400 weaved in and out of traffic at speeds topping 100 mph.

In South Los Angeles, the driver exited at Florence Avenue and continued at speeds between 60 and 75 mph on surface streets, narrowly missing pedestrians including a boy on a skateboard, a couple wheeling a baby across the street and a little girl pulled out of the way at the last minute by a woman.

Shortly before 1 p.m., the male driver bolted from the car and, with a cellphone held to his ear, appeared to run into an apartment complex near the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The woman who had been the passenger jumped into the driver's seat and drove off, leading officers on a brief chase that ended when she appeared to hit another vehicle.

She then ran, also with a cellphone at her ear, to another apartment complex before being arrested a short time later.

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Photo: A female suspect peers out from the back of a Los Angeles County sheriff deputy's patrol car after a dangerous, high-speed pursuit that started in Chino, crossed three county lines and ended on the streets of South Los Angeles on Tuesday afternoon. Credit: Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times

L.A. votes: Next mayor's big challenges, questions about union influence

The nation’s eyes were fixed this weekend on the Oscar race unfolding in Hollywood. But with just days to go before the citywide March 5 election, local political contests were getting just as hot and heavy.

The Times took a wide-angle look at the challenges facing the city as voters pick a successor to termed-out Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. City leaders have already cut hundreds of millions of dollars out of everyday services and ongoing maintenance to stay afloat, but the next chief executive will have to make hard decisions, especially in light of costly, ill-timed spending commitments made at City Hall and a failure to adjust to the region's weakening economic foundation.

That hard fact has prompted some to question two city unions’ heavy financial backing of Wendy Greuel in the race. Greuel defended her record, saying as controller she has scrutinized many city agencies and has worked on behalf of taxpayers.

FULL COVERAGE: L.A.'s race for mayor

Greuel is not the only one receiving outside aid in her bid. Kevin James, who has received nearly a half-million dollars of support from an independent committee, issued a plea for new funding from the Texas billionaire who has thus far bankrolled much of the effort. Meanwhile, James continued to attack Greuel for her ties to the union representing  many workers from the city’s Department of Water and Power.

The first in a series of profiles of the mayoral candidates examines the past and present statements of James.

The mayoral candidates made their Oscar picks for best movie, and tried to use the focus on Hollywood bonanza to woo voters. James highlighted his endorsement by the Bring Hollywood Home Foundation in a fund-raising appeal that warned, “Imagine a Hollywood with no Oscars because the industry was run out of town by our city's bad policies.” Greuel put out a mailer featuring the head of her rival, Councilman Eric Garcetti, superimposed on an Oscar statue with the headline, “And the award goes to... ERIC GARCETTI. Worst Performance By A Politician In A Leading Role.”

Bell council took money from the poor, D.A. says

The prosecutor in the Bell corruption case took aim at the six defendants in his closing statement Wednesday, saying that instead of serving their low-income community they were more interested in fattening their wallets.

“I’m talking about taking big money — money from poor people, money from tenants in low-income housing,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Edward Miller said.

Miller said the defendants tried to hide salaries of as much as $100,000 a year. He said that when a resident asked them during a council meeting how much they made, it took a City Council member five seconds to respond.

FULL COVERAGE: Bell corruption trial

The prosecutor held up his hand and counted on his fingers: “1,000, 2,000, 3,000, 4,000, 5,000.”

The six former council members are accused of boosting their salaries with pay from city boards that met seldom, if ever. State law said they should have been paid $673 a month, according to Miller.

The prosecutor said that  despite the defendants’ testimony about their hours of devotion to the city, it was clear they had not acted out of selflessness.

“All this extra stuff they said they did, all the good they did for the community, all the selfless acts they said they performed — well, why not tell the public that the $673 I signed up for when I took this job just is not enough, look at all I do?” Miller asked.

Although much of the defense has pinned the blame on the former city manager, Miller said, “Robert Rizzo wasn’t trying to mislead them, they’re trying to mislead the public.”

During his 77-minute statement, Miller, at times sarcastic and mocking, took care to tear down each of the defendants.

For former Councilman George Cole, who testified that he had only voted for a 12% annual raise because he feared Rizzo, Miller said: “Boy, I sure wish my boss would threaten me with a raise.”