Man found dead after La Crescenta cell phone store stand off identified

L:A CRESCENTA — Coroner’s officials Sunday released the name of a 33-year-old man sheriff’s officials said fatally shot himself at the end of a five-hour standoff inside a La Crescenta cell phone store on Black Friday.
Shawn David Weissenborn of Santa Clarita died at the scene of the standoff, which unfolded Friday afternoon and evening at a shopping center in the 2600 block of Foothill Boulevard, just east of La Crescenta Avenue, Los Angeles County Department of Coroner Investigator Dana Bee said.
An autopsy had not been completed Sunday, Bee said.
The unusual incident began shortly after 4 p.m. with a robbery at a nearby Rite-Aid Pharmacy, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Sgt. Burton Brink said.
After demanding painkillers at gunpoint and receiving about 100 pills, Weissenborn fled into a neighboring cell phone store, Lt. Angela Shepherd said.
Though officials initially feared the gunman had hostages, it was ultimately determined everyone had safely exited the store when Weissenborn barged in.
The store is labeled with “Verizon Wireless” signage, but operates under the name, “Connect Wireless.”
Deputies, including SWAT team members and crisis negotiators, responded to the scene and began speaking with Weissenborn by phone, Brink said. He indicated during the conversations that he was preparing to surrender, but first wanted to call his mother and smoke a cigarette.
Deputies ultimately forced their way into the store and found Weissenborn dead, “apparently by his own hand,” according to Deputy Guillermina Saldana of the Sheriff’s Headquarters Bureau. No deputies fired their weapons during the incident.
Weissenborn had no violent criminal history in Los Angeles County Superior Court records, which listed a single conviction for drunken driving causing injury in 2009.

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