Police Veteran Surrenders After Standoff

LANCASTER —  A 40-year-old Los Angeles police officer, apparently despondent over his career, surrendered without resistance Thursday after holding sheriff’s deputies at bay for five hours with an assault rifle, authorities said.

The standoff began when Hans Steadner, a 17-year veteran who has been on stress-related leave from the Hollywood Division for more than a year, used a cellular phone Wednesday night to call an emergency operator, said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Gabe Ramirez.

Dressed in Army fatigues and a bulletproof vest, Steadner asked the 911 operator to connect him with a friend at the LAPD and fired gunshots in the air to punctuate his demands, Ramirez said.

“He wanted an opportunity to express that he was unhappy with what was happening with his career with the LAPD and his pending retirement,” said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. Dan Reidder.

Steadner also made numerous suicide and death threats.

“On the one hand he said he doesn’t want to hurt anybody,” Reidder said. “On the other hand he said if we brought down a helicopter he’d shoot it or if anybody tried to take him in, he’d shoot them.”

More than 30 sheriff’s deputies, crisis negotiators and special-weapons team members were sent to a command post in the 22800 block of West Avenue D, Ramirez said. Steadner’s friend and former partner, LAPD Sgt. Robert Green, arrived and was asked to help talk Steadner into surrendering.

But their conversation was interrupted when Steadner’s cellular phone battery died, prompting him to travel to a neighbor’s home in the 49600 block of 230th Street West to borrow a telephone.

Steadner agreed to surrender shortly after 2 a.m. and was taken into custody. He was transported to Olive View-UCLA Medical Center for psychiatric observation.

Authorities recovered six more rifles and a handgun from his home.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Howard Fairchild said it remains unknown whether Steadner will face criminal charges of illegal shooting.

At the center of Steadner’s troubles appeared to be frustrations over his career and problems with the LAPD, according to friends and family members. In addition, Steadner’s medical benefits through the Police Department had recently run out, leaving him to rely solely on state disability, Ramirez said.

Steadner’s wife, who asked not to be identified, said that her husband was upset at the Police Department’s “treatment of me and him.”

“It’s not the job that they do,” she said of her husband’s stress problems. “It’s the internal management.” She added that her husband suffered back problems.

Lt. John Dunkin, an LAPD spokesman, said he could not comment on Hans Steadner’s case because it involves an ongoing personnel dispute. Dunkin said Steadner’s wife is a former LAPD Valley Traffic Division officer who was fired in June, 1992, following a Board of Rights hearing regarding benefits abuse. Steadner’s friend, Green, said Steadner was a “phenomenal” cop when they patrolled the streets of Hollywood together in 1983.

“He was always very upbeat and very dedicated to the service of the community,” said Green.

Times staff writer Timothy Williams and special correspondent Doug Alger contributed to this story.