VIDEO: Armed Robbery in La Crescenta Ends with Suspect's Apparent Suicide

By City News Service

Sheriff's deputies continued to investigate a five- hour standoff at a Crescenta Valley strip mall, which ended with the apparent suicide of the suspected robber.

The dead gunman's name had yet to be released Saturday.

The man had robbed a Rite-Aid pharmacy and was in the act of robbing the Connect Wireless store, in a strip mall at Foothill Boulevard at Rosemont Avenue, when deputies arrived at about 4 p.m. Friday, according to the sheriff's department.

The man was reportedly armed with two guns and a knife. But initial reports that he had taken two hostages proved to be incorrect.

Members of the suspect's family were brought in to help sheriff's crisis negotiators convince him to give himself up.

The SWAT team entered the store about 9:40 p.m. Friday and discovered the man had killed himself, said Sgt. Diane Hecht of the Sheriff's Headquarters Bureau.

It was not immediately known how the man took his life. No shots were fired by sheriff's deputies, they said.