From City News Service
A 33-year-old Santa Clarita man has been identified as the person who robbed a pharmacy and tried to rob a cellphone store in La Crescenta, the coroner's office said today.
Shawn David Weissenborn was found dead from gunfire inside the mini-mall after a five hour standoff, said Coroner's Investigator Dana Bee. No cause of death was officially announced by the coroner, but sheriff's deputies have said it was a suicide and they never fired their weapons.
Weissenborn apparently robbed a Rite-Aid pharmacy and was in the act of robbing the Connect Wireless store, in a strip mall at Foothill Boulevard at Rosemont Avenue, when deputies arrived at about 4 p.m. Friday, according to the sheriff's department.
The man was reportedly armed with two guns and a knife. But initial reports that he had taken two hostages proved to be incorrect.
Members of the suspect's family were brought in to help sheriff's crisis negotiators convince him to give himself up.
After five hours of negotiations, the SWAT team entered the store about 9:40 p.m. Friday and discovered the man had killed himself, said Sgt. Diane Hecht of the Sheriff's Headquarters Bureau.
