By Tracy Manzer
Long Beach Press-Telegram
LONG BEACH, Calif. — Police on Wednesday released new details in the case of a man who was shot and killed after he took his parents-in- law hostage, painting a picture of a harrowing ordeal for the victims and noting the suspect’s troubled past.
Michael Maguire, 36, of Menifee in Riverside County, was shot and killed by Long Beach Police Department SWAT officers on Friday following a roughly four-hour standoff at the East Long Beach home of Maguire’s in-laws.
The victims’ terror, however, began much earlier when Maguire stormed their home in the 6100 block of Rosebay Street at about 4 a.m. Maguire beat one of the victims and bound both to prevent their escape, said Lisa Massacani, a Long Beach Police Department spokeswoman.
For the next four hours Maguire tried to contact his estranged wife, finally reaching her by telephone after forcing one of his hostages to call her at about 8:30 a.m., Massacani said.
Through the hostage, Maguire demanded his wife bring their children to Long Beach and threatened to kill her parents if she did not do as he said. He also told her he would kill her parents if she contacted police or if he saw any police outside the victims’ East Long Beach home, the spokeswoman said.
Maguire’s wife broke down and called police at about 12:15 p.m. to report the hostage situation and warned police Maguire was known to carry guns and knives. Officers also had reason to believe there was a firearm kept in the home, Massacani said.
“Based on the investigation and working with other law enforcement agencies that have had recent contact with the suspect, officers believed the threats to harm the hostages to be credible,” Massacani said Wednesday.
Area surrounded
The LBPD Special Weapons and Tactics team was deployed and SWAT and patrol officers surrounded not only the home but the neighborhood as well, she said.
“Based on the ... threat to kill the hostages if the suspect saw the police, resources were deployed in a concealed manner to avoid detection by the suspect,” Massacani explained.
The shooting occurred at about 4 p.m. after Maguire and one of the hostages walked out of the house into the backyard, she said.
That was when SWAT team members, coming from a neighbor’s yard, approached the suspect, she said.
Maguire immediately turned around and moved toward the hostage, who was only a few feet away. He started to push the hostage back inside the home and that is when SWAT officers opened fire, Massacani said.
“SWAT officers believed the suspect would carry out his threats if he got back inside the home,” she said.
No weapon found
The hostage was able to get safely back inside the house and additional SWAT officers forced entry into the front and side of the single-family home to rescue both hostages, Massacani said.
No other victims were found inside the home, and Long Beach Fire Department paramedics who were standing by were able to tend to the shot suspect as well as one of the hostages, who suffered minor injuries, Massacani said.
Police officials declined to say if the victim’s injuries were caused by the suspect or were a result of gunfire from the SWAT officers.
Maguire was declared dead at the scene with multiple gunshot wounds to the upper torso, Massacani said.
“No weapon was found on the suspect,” she said.
The injured hostage was taken to a local hospital, treated and released that same day, she said.
Police declined to say how many rounds were fired in the deadly confrontation, citing the ongoing internal investigation.
Neighbors described hearing anywhere from two to half a dozen shots ring out.
The couple, many neighbors said, were separated and had been embroiled in a custody dispute over their three children, who are 12, 10 and 8 years old.
Search for children
Maguire’s mother, Anita Petersen, accused her son’s estranged wife of kidnapping the children and said her son had spent days looking for them, traveling from the family’s home in San Bernardino County to Seal Beach and Santa Barbara.
“His kids have been gone about nine days, he just wanted to see them and make sure they were all right,” Petersen told the Press- Telegram this week.
Police haven’t released the names of the wife or her parents, and no one at the home could be reached for comment.
Maguire’s mother also insisted that if her daughter-in-law had called her, or anyone else in Maguire’s family, they could have helped bring a peaceful resolution to the situation.
“He promised those kids that if she ever took them away he would find them,” said Petersen, who lives in Hemet.
“He was a good man, a good son; he never would hurt anyone,” the distraught mother said. “This woman did not want him alive any longer, and she used the police to kill him.”
In addition to the Long Beach Police Department’s investigation into the officer-involved shooting, independent investigations by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office and the Los Angeles County coroner’s department are still pending, Massacani said Wednesday.
Those investigations typically take several months, if not longer, to complete, she said.
Copyright 2011 ProQuest Information and Learning