Suspect found dead after U.S. marshal, LA officer shot

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A Tennessee man charged in a drug case was found dead in an apartment after an hours-long standoff that began when a U.S. marshal serving a search warrant and a police officer were shot and wounded.

A coroner's investigator identified the man Tuesday as Joseph Allain, 20, of Memphis. An autopsy was to be performed to determine the cause of death.

Allain was arrested Oct. 30 in Los Angeles on a cocaine distribution charge out of Memphis, but was released on $50,000 bail Nov. 8. The U.S. Marshal's Service was about to rearrest him for violating conditions of his bail.

The marshal was in stable condition with an arm wound. The police officer was doing well after treatment of a bullet wound through his right leg.

The standoff ended shortly after 11 p.m. Monday, more than 12 hours after it began.

A wide area of a neighborhood near Marina del Rey was shut down for hours as as police fired tear gas into the apartment unit. Residents were evacuated from the seven-story apartment building and much of the surrounding area.

About 10:30 p.m., SWAT officers set off an explosion to break down a door and sent a robot into the apartment to see whether Allain was alive. They found him dead, Lt. Horace Frank said.

The standoff began about 11:15 a.m. after the marshal approached the apartment on Marina Pointe Drive to arrest Allain on a warrant out of Tennessee.

A burst of gunfire from an automatic weapon through the apartment door struck Deputy Marshal Larry Gloth in the shoulder, police said.

As police responded to the scene, a shot fired from the building hit Officer Gerry Smedley, 44, on the street.

Gloth was in fair and stable condition at a hospital, said Aldean Lee, assistant chief of the U.S. Marshal's Service. Smedley also was in fair condition, said Officer Jason Lee.

Smedley was the second Los Angeles policeman wounded by gunfire this year. The last Los Angeles officer fatally shot on the job was Brian Brown in November 1998.