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Hollywood Thriller: Suspect In Publicist's Death Kills Himself As Cops Approach

The scene Wednesday outside the Los Angeles apartment house where a man authorities wanted to question about the murder of publicist Ronni Chasen killed himself as police approached. 
Kevork Djansezian
/
Getty Images
The scene Wednesday outside the Los Angeles apartment house where a man authorities wanted to question about the murder of publicist Ronni Chasen killed himself as police approached. 

A tragic tale from Hollywood. But this time it's all too real:

"A man described as a suspect in the slaying of veteran Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen fatally shot himself at a Hollywood apartment house Wednesday evening as Beverly Hills police were serving a search warrant there." ( Los Angeles Times)

The Associated Press begins its account this way:

"Detectives investigating the slaying of Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen tried to ask questions of a 'person of interest' in the lobby of a Los Angeles residence hotel, but the man pulled out a handgun and killed himself, police said."

The man's name hasn't yet been released. TMZ.com, which is often ahead of others on stories like this, and the Timessay he was known as "Harold."

As NPR's Karen Grigsby Bates reported last month on All Things Considered, Chasen was a "glamorous blonde" who could have been "part of a classic Raymond Chandler novel." The 64-year-old movie and music publicist was found Nov. 16, mortally wounded, slumped behind the wheel of her Mercedes-Benz in a "posh Beverly Hills neighborhood." She had been shot several times in the chest.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.