Carjacking suspect tied to violent crimes and Long Beach standoff has died, police say

A carjacking suspect who police say shot two people and stabbed another before shooting himself in the head at the end of a wild pursuit Friday has died, Los Angeles police said.

Daniel Ramirez died shortly before 6 p.m. Saturday, Officer Mike Lopez said.

Ramirez was identified Saturday as an accomplice to Artyom Gasparyan, a 32-year-old man who police believe is responsible for a monthlong series of violent crimes — including robbery, carjacking, attempted murder and a fatal shooting — stretching across Los Angeles County.

Detectives with the LAPD’s elite Robbery-Homicide Division have worked around the clock in recent days to find Gasparyan, whom police consider armed and dangerous. Police went public with their search Saturday evening, asking the public for help.

The crimes linked to Gasparyan began Dec. 6 in northeast Los Angeles, police said, but also occurred in Burbank, West Hollywood and, most recently, in Carson.

Capt. Billy Hayes, who heads the Robbery-Homicide Division, said Gasparyan was considered a suspect in Wednesday’s killing of a 37-year-old man who was shot in Panorama City. Paramedics found the man lying near a car and took him to a hospital, where he died.

Police initially described that killing as a “road rage” incident.

Burbank police also announced Saturday evening that Gasparyan was suspected in a Dec. 9 double shooting in the 1700 block of North Catalina Street that left two people wounded.

At the time, Burbank police said a 67-year-old man was shot multiple times that morning outside his home. A 33-year-old gardener, who was working down the street, was also shot once in the foot as the shooter fled, the man’s coworker told the Burbank Leader.

Burbank police said Saturday that they were working with the LAPD on the investigation.

Police described Gasparyan as a 5-foot-7, 170-pound Armenian man with black hair, brown eyes and facial hair. Anyone with information about him is asked to call LAPD detectives at (213) 486-6890.

The most recent crime linked to Gasparyan and Ramirez unfolded Friday morning on the 105 Freeway in Carson when an off-duty officer spotted a Volkswagen Passat driving recklessly. A police dispatcher told the officer that the car was wanted in connection with a suspected car theft and robbery, the LAPD said.

After patrol cars caught up to the Passat, the vehicle stopped near 223rd Street and Normandie Avenue, where police said a passenger jumped out and carjacked a nearby Dodge Durango. The passenger fired four times at the Durango driver, the LAPD said, but the rounds missed.

The violent nature of the carjacking prompted police to follow the Durango rather than the Passat, a police spokesman said. Officers chased the Durango into Long Beach, where it crashed on Wardlow Road near Maine Avenue.

The suspect, later identified as Ramirez, jumped out of the vehicle and fled into a nearby home. Police said he shot and wounded two men inside and stabbed their father in the face before turning the handgun on himself.

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