Los Angeles police arrested a 35-year-old man Wednesday following a standoff hours after the suspect, on a narcotics-fueled rampage, allegedly beat a woman to death in her neighborhood using a metal baseball bat and barricaded himself inside her home several times a few blocks.
Man allegedly beat woman to death with bat in drug-fueled rampage
At least eight residents were evacuated from homes in the Pico-Union neighborhood, and police SWAT teams and armored trucks lined the block, until Joshua Ramos was apprehended around 1:30 p.m.
in an alley behind a single-story home where he is reported to have lived since high school.
The roughly five-hour ordeal began around 8:15 am when officers first responded to a report of an assault with a deadly weapon.
A woman was found suffering “very significant blunt trauma to the head” and officers also recovered an aluminum bat from the scene, police said.
The woman was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead, Patch reported.
Detectives believe Ramos attacked the woman before running back to her home near the intersection of West 20th Street and South Mariposa Avenue and barricading himself inside.
The motive for the attack remains under investigation, but Lt. John Radtke said the suspect was exhibiting “erratic behavior in the neighborhood” and neighbors told KTLA that Ramos could be seen breaking windows and damaging property that morning.
At a press conference around 2 p.m., officials announced that the suspect was taken into custody and identified him as Ramos. Authorities did not disclose whether Ramos knew the victim or had any relationship with the woman.
Online records from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department list his bail at $2 million.
