- We watched the home of a man named Beck burn down. People
present at the time said it was a repeat of Waco. They claimed
that the man had an arsenal of assault weapons. A neighbor
turned him in. Here is the story: Los
Angeles News
-
- Body amid the ashes
- By Bhavna Mistry
- STEVENSON RANCH -- Sunday, September 2, 2001 - Human remains
believed to be those of James Beck were found Saturday in the
burned shell of his Stevenson Ranch home where he barricaded
himself during a deadly gun battle that left deputy Hagop "Jake"
Kuredjian dead, officials said.
The remains were found among the soot and rubble of the collapsed
two-story home shortly after noon.
- ATF agents [The mission of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco
and Firearms (ATF) is vital to reducing violent crime, protecting
the public, collecting revenue, and providing ... Description:
The ATF is a law enforcement organization within the United States
Department of Treasury. ] and fire personnel sift through the
rubble left after the fire (Shaun Dyer / Daily News)
The body was surrounded by a bulletproof vest and two
heavily burned assault rifles in the back of Beck's Brooks
Circle home.
- "This will bring some closure in this situation,"
said Capt. Don Rodriguez, who heads the Santa Clarita sheriff's
station. "We are still waiting for positive confirmation
that this is the suspect."
- Kuredjian was killed by a single gunshot wound to the head
shortly after 8:30 a.m. Friday as he came to assist deputies
and federal agents serving a search warrant at Beck's home, officials
said.
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ATF agents and fire personnel sift through the rubble left
after the fire (Shaun Dyer / Daily News) |
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- "Many of us hoped that this was all a nightmare when
we woke up this morning, and we would come to work and find Jake
smiling," said Lt. Carl Deeley of the Los Angeles County
Sheriff's Department, his eyes full of tears as he remembered
his co-worker and friend. "But obviously, that's not what
happened."
- Body and dental X-rays will help confirm if the remains are
Beck's and an autopsy will determine a cause of death, said Lt.
David Smith with the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office.
- Also found among the ashes of the home were more weapons,
ammunition, a floor safe from which a water damaged photograph
was retrieved and a law enforcement badge.
- Also burned inside the garage were two sport utility-type
vehicles, one containing even more firearms, including a rifle
with a scope, eight bullet holders from various caliber weapons
and a semiautomatic pistol.
- Local and federal officials began a search for Beck's body
and other evidence at daylight Saturday.
- After being checked and rechecked, remnants of the home
were placed into large donated trash containers. As they
were moved in and out of the typically quiet neighborhood, neighbors
pulled up lawn chairs and watched with their children.
- Others in the northern Los Angeles County neighborhood gathered
in groups and spoke of the previous day's events that left the
community in shock and disbelief.
- While some of the material collected at the home will be
thrown away, the remainder was transported to Pitchess Detention
Center in Castaic where it is being saved for evidence.
- "It's a long, painstaking process," Deeley said.
- Some of the deputies who were involved in the shootout Friday
returned to the home Saturday morning to revisit the scene where
one of their own was gunned down.
- "Deputies are trying to make some sense out of this,"
said an emotional Rodriguez who hugged fellow deputies, friends
and well-wishers who had gathered outside the Brooks Circle home.
"It's been extremely difficult. We're still in shock. "
- Rodriguez said he was grateful for the community's overwhelming
support for Kuredjian and his department.
- "We're all family, we all live and work here,"
Rodriguez said. "We all love Jake and will never forget
him."
- It was a tip from neighbors that led federal agents to Beck's
home in search of firearms that he had boasted about.
- With a criminal record, Beck, 35, was not allowed to possess
weapons, officials said.
- Beck had been a police officer but was dismissed from the
Arcadia Police Department in 1988, officials said.
- Authorities said Beck was jailed twice in the last 10 years
for committing crimes ranging from burglary and auto theft to
possession of unlawful weapons and impersonating a police officer.
- After he killed Kuredjian, Beck continued his sporadic shooting
and refused to negotiate with authorities, officials said. Tear
gas was used to force him into the lower portion of the home
and get him to surrender.
- Shortly after noon a fire broke out in the second story of
the home. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
-
- Australia reports:
Waco fear in siege inferno
By Darrel Giles, Los Angeles
- Herald
Sun News, Australia 02sep01: ... Sheriff's deputy Harry Drucker
said authorities believed Beck torched the house, but were trying
to determine whether the tear gas started the fire.
- There was a chilling similarity to the Branch Davidian standoff
at Waco in 1993 when tear gas and stun grenades set fire to the
compound and more than 70 people – including cult leader
David Koresh – died in the blaze.
- The garage door opened just before midday and officers expected
Beck to escape the burning building.
- But it closed soon after and there was no further sign of
the gunman.
- As flames licked through the collapsing roof, fire trucks
using neighboring homes as shields poured streams of water on
the blaze.
- Firefighters kept their distance, fearing they could become
targets of the gunman.
- Police sources said Beck had a ground-to-air missile in his
stockpile of weapons and threatened to use it.
- Neighbors were ordered from their homes along with 1200 children
from Stevenson Ranch Elementary School.
- Teri Cerino, who lives across the street from Beck, watched
the drama unfold from her first-story window.
- "They started yelling at him to come outside. He
came to the door and said he didn't want them to hurt his dog,"
she said.
- "He went back in the house and he closed his door."
- Beck's girlfriend left the house early in the standoff and
is being held as a witness, deputies said.
- Beck, 35, had convictions for burglary and impersonating
a police officer, William Woolsey of the US Marshals Service
said.
- He worked for the Arcadia Police Department for a year, but
was fired because he did not pass his probation test, chief Dave
Hinig said.
- Stevenson Ranch is an exclusive area of million-dollar homes
50km north-west of downtown Los Angeles.
- ___________________________
- Editor:
- There are some interesting facets to this story: The deputy
was delivering a search warrant. Beck, according to the story
on Fox News, shot the deputy point blank, one bullet to the head.
Why was he prepared to do that when he had just a few weapons
in the house. Why was he not in jail for burglary unless they
were minor convictions. We are supposed to be living under the
rule of law. How was it applied in this case?
- It was admitted on Fox News that the canister of tear gas
would start a fire if it contacted synthetic materials and sure
enough smoke and flames soon came through the windows and roof.
No firemen were allowed to go near the house to put out the flames
until it was practically burned to the ground and only to protect
the homes next door to the home. Notice nobody complained about
the way this was handled. We were stunned. The homes in this
neighborhood were around $500,000. It went up in smoke and 2
men are dead and nobody is held responsible.
-
- In his last newsletter which came right after I collected
this information, Power of Prophecy, Texe Marrs wrote about "real
life blood games," which date back to Gladiators in the
early Roman Empire when Christians were persecuted often for
entertainment purposes. He states: "the United States has
recently conducted a series of popular, real-life Blood Games
- each of which was watched by cheering, blood lusty masses who
observed the Games on big-screen televisions from the comfort
of their living rooms. First, there were smart bombs and missiles
rained down on the Third World nation of Iraq... Next ... the
aggression against the Serb nation.. in Bosnia/Yugoslavia...
(click on the Bosnia link to check the interesting facts) U.S.
air strikes raining fire and death down on civilian skyscrapers,
passenger trains.. fleeing flocks of refugees.. We massacred
tens of thousands supposedly to get at one man, Mr. Slobodan
Milosevic.. Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden.. worthy of death
- but first the Blood Games must be conducted. Call forth the
American Gladiators! .. Randy Weaver.. white separatists.. Away
with them.. David Koresh.. "Cultists.. weapons possessors,"...
What we are seeing in the U.S.A. is updated reenactment of the
ancient Blood Games of Rome but with a new, internet and television
age, high tech slice of favor.. Today, American audiences are
clamoring to watch on television convicts be put to death by
[ the various means]..
- Texe states: "The Holy Bible says that near the end
of time, one, very special group shall be cast as the designated
enemy - as villains of society, as a collection of dangerous
misfits. The Bible-believer who refuses to compromise his or
her faith, who clings to Jesus, who says no to false Bible
versions, no to homosexual perversion, no to murder
of little babies through abortion, no to other gods and
other religions - he or she shall become the publicly despised
sacrifice of the prophesied Blood Games of Revelation.
- "The devil is now preparing and training the final generation
of killers - desensitized and unfeeling, modern-day Gladiators...
The lions are hungry.. Let the Games begin! Even so, come quickly,
Lord Jesus.. [Source: Power of Prophecy, September 2001, page
2 ]
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