A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.  Second Amendment, U.S. Constitution

Officers shot at wrong house in L.A. siege

By Carol Chambers and Josh Meyer
Times Staff Writer
Posted September 1 2001, 10:50 PM EDT

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. -- An eruption of violence that claimed the life of a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy took authorities off guard, plunging a quiet neighborhood into such chaos that officers fired into houses on both sides of the suspect's, officials said Saturday. The extent to which officers were surprised in the Friday morning raid was evident Saturday in the charred ruins of James Allen Beck's home, where investigators found a body believed to be that of the former police officer and convicted felon. Federal agents were serving a search warrant on Beck's house when he allegedly responded with gunfire, triggering a gun battle that ended when his home caught fire and burned to the ground. In addition to Beck's body, authorities said they found several assault rifles, a handgun and large amounts of ammunition in the ashes of his home. Authorities say Beck shot sheriff's Deputy Hagop “Jake” Kuredjian. An autopsy Saturday determined that the officer had died of a bullet wound to the head. Relatives of Beck in the San Diego community of Scripps Ranch released a statement saying the family was “deeply saddened by the death of Deputy Kuredjian. We would like to offer our condolences to the deputy's family and to the entire police community on their tragic loss,” the statement said. “We are struggling to come to terms with James' actions and do not understand what caused him to do what he did,” the statement said. Residents of surrounding homes in the Stevenson Ranch subdivision were full of questions in the aftermath of the tragedy, and some were critical of the way in which a simple legal maneuver — the serving of a search warrant — quickly escalated into a violent inferno that appeared to threaten the entire neighborhood. The questions zeroed in on the tactics used in the siege and fire, with suggestions that the incident verged on chaos as law enforcement officials struggled with a dangerously out-of-control situation. Law enforcement officials, while acknowledging that they were surprised, said it was too early to answer many of the questions raised by the incident. They also said the only person to blame for the explosion of violence was Beck, who was under investigation for impersonating a U.S. marshal and for being a felon in possession of a firearm. A man who lived across the street from Beck said he saw sheriff's deputies firing at a home next door to the suspect's. “I hollered out the window, ‘You're shooting at the wrong house!' “ said the man, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “They must have heard us or somthing, because I could hear one of the deputies say, ‘Is it the house with the Explorer?' And another guy says, ‘No, the one next to it.' “ Capt. Ray Leyva, commanding officer of the sheriff's Headquarters Bureau, acknowledged that deputies fired at that house, as well as the house on the other side of Beck's. “We did hit the houses on either side,” he said. “I don't know exactly what was happening at the time, I don't know how well (the deputies') aim was but they were returning fire and trying to rescue someone so I'm sure they were hitting things during the battle.” The two houses adjoining Beck's — at least one of which was occupied, by a couple and a baby, during the shooting — were pocked with numerous bullet marks. Friday morning's operation was carried out by two U.S. marshals and eight agents of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Three sheriff's deputies accompanied them for support. Once the gunfight began, the Sheriff's Department rushed in reinforcements and took charge. The Southern California head of the ATF offered some answers to residents' questions Saturday and defended his agency's role in the raid. Donald Kincaid said the ATF had reason to believe that Beck would be cooperative Friday morning. The reason for their confidence, he said, was that the bureau had conducted a similar search a year ago. And on that occasion, after federal agents called Beck on the telephone, he came outside and cooperated fully. On Friday, Beck greeted agents very differently, refusing to come outside, and then firing a fusillade of automatic weapons fire at them as they advanced on the house, authorities said. That forced agents to scramble for cover on Beck's front lawn and call for back-up, and he still kept firing. Early in the battle, he allegedly shot and killed Kuredjian, who suffered a head wound while trying to provide cover to deputies pinned down in the fuselade, authorities said. Kincaid called Beck's response “unanticipated resistance,” and acknowledged that it took his agents by surprise, even though they had prepared extensively for the search. “We don't just go to Dunkin Donuts, talk about it for three minutes and show up at the house,” said Kincaid. “We did what we thought was best based on intelligence and prior dealings with this individual, which was to call him on the phone and ask him to come out.” The specific reasons for the search are laid out in an affidavit by a federal agent that was shown to a federal prosecutor and a federal judge, both of whom approved the search. Kincaid said the affidavit was sealed and he would not discuss the specifics it contained. Dozens of investigators picked through the rubble that was Beck's house on Saturday, ultimately finding what they think are the badly charred remains of his body — encased in a bulletproof vest and lying on an assault rifle — as well as that of his dog.

James Beck (AP)     Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy Jake Kuredjian (AP)

Copyright © 2001, The Los Angeles Times