Crime Beat

burglar alarm went off again and the officers saw one person running from the rear of the building. They quickly returned to their patrol car and drove around the block in an attempt to cut the suspect off, Booth said.
    “Then they split up,” the police spokesman said. “Beyea went on foot and Gonzalez stayed in the car. They thought this would be the best way to go after the suspect.”
    Beyea caught up with the suspect on Hinds Avenue, just north of Wyandotte Street—about two blocks from the electronics store—and attempted to arrest him, Booth said. From the car, Gonzalez saw his partner and the suspect struggling for control of a gun.
    Heard Gunfire
    “Gonzalez was about a block away when he saw the struggle,” Booth said. “As he went toward them, he heard and saw gunfire.”
    Beyea fell to the ground, Booth said, and the suspect fired at Gonzalez as he approached. Gonzalez returned the fire, but neither was hit. The suspect then ran off while Gonzalez went to Beyea’s aid.
    About 50 officers, assisted by a helicopter and seven police dogs, searched a 16-block area around the shooting site, Booth said. About 4:30 a.m., one of the dogs led officers to a vacant house at 11828 Runnymede St., about three blocks from where Beyea had been shot.
    Officers entered the one-story house, located on a wooded lot, and found Steele hiding in a corner of the attic.
    According to a police statement, Sgt. Gary Nanson, 34, and Officer John Hall, 41, climbed into the attic and ordered Steele to raise his hands. The teen-ager complied and told the officers that the man they wanted was hiding downstairs, police said, but then he reached to his side to grab a gun.
    Hall fired one time and wounded Steele in the head, police said. Despite several warnings to stay still, Steele twice again attempted to pick the gun up and was fatally shot by Nanson and two other officers, who had also climbed into the attic, the statement said.
    The gun retrieved from Steele’s side was Beyea’s service revolver, Booth said. Ballistics tests will be conducted to determine if it was the weapon used to kill the officer, he said.
    No other weapon was found, police said, and no one else was found in the house.
    But during a search of the area, officers found Alberto Hernandez, 19, hiding in bushes about a block from where Beyea was killed. He admitted taking part in the burglary and was arrested on suspicion of murder, police said.
    1st Death This Year
    Beyea was the first Los Angeles police officer killed in the line of duty this year. Two were killed last year.
    Beyea, a Reseda resident, entered the Police Academy last October and graduated March 25. Capt. Charles (Rick) Dinse, commander of the North Hollywood Division, where the rookie was assigned, said Beyea was routinely paired with a veteran who had training officer qualifications.
    “I can only say he was considered by his supervisors and training officer to be one of our best,” Dinse said. “He was a sharp policeman who we expected to have a great career.”
    Beyea, who was single, was born in Reseda and graduated from Cleveland High School in 1981. He served in the Air Force and Air Force Reserve.
    Beyea’s grandfather was a Los Angeles traffic officer before retiring in 1961, police said.
    Funeral arrangements were pending Tuesday. Beyea is survived by his mother, Cathleen Beyea of Northridge. Beyea is the second North Hollywood officer to be killed in three years. Detective Thomas C. Williams, 42, was shot to death Oct. 31, 1985, in what authorities said was an effort to prevent him from testifying in a robbery case.
    Times staff writer Steve Padilla contributed to this report.
DEATH FOR DEATH
Youth had minor scrapes with law but didn’t fit image of a cop killer.
June 9, 1988
    Bobby Steele was swinging the bat well, and by Sunday was on a nine-game hitting streak with a city youth league baseball team, the Sun Valley Park Pirates.
    On Monday, the 16-year-old was able to parlay a morning dental appointment into a whole day off from school. The grandparents who raised him didn’t mind that he spent the rest of the day around the house.
    But by 9 p.m. he was ready to get out of the North Hollywood home where he had lived his entire life. He baked himself a batch of cookies and then left to meet a friend. When he walked out the door, he left behind everything that appeared to be routine about his life.
    A few hours later and a few blocks away, Robert Jay Steele killed a cop, Los