Hollywood: Man, 48, shot while wielding swords

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Mario Majorski, a 48-year-old white man, was shot in the chest and killed by a security guard at the Scientology Celebrity Centre in Hollywood on Sunday, Nov. 23, 2008.

Majorksi, who had once been a Scientology member, stormed the facility in the 5900 block of Franklin Avenue that afternoon with a samurai sword in each hand.

Three days after the incident, Los Angeles County district attorney’s officials said the security guard, a 64-year-old retired Seal Beach police officer, would not face criminal charges in the fatal shooting.

According to a prosecutor’s report, Majorski threatened the guards and said ‘something about revenge.’ He dropped one sword and began walking back to his car, but then unsheathed a second sword and said he would kill anyone who tried to arrest him, the report stated. The guard shot him after he made ‘one last run’ with the sword at the guards, according to the report.

LAPD Det. Wendi Berndt said security videotape left no doubt that the guard was justified in shooting Majorski.

‘The video is so very, very, very vivid,’ she said. ‘This man was mentally ill, and it’s just a wonder he didn’t kill people.’

Majorski had made at least a dozen threatening phone calls to Scientology offices in Oregon and California, according to the church. Berndt said detectives interviewed Majorski’s relatives and compiled information about recent run-ins with the law, including an incident in which he threatened an Oregon judge and another in which he was accused of threatening a tow truck driver.

--Harriet Ryan and James Wagner