Police End 3-Day Standoff With Woman

Police using tear gas and percussion grenades early today stormed the home of a 65-year-old Los Angeles woman who had held them off for three days, shooting her with an electric stun gun as she cowered under a blanket in the bathtub.

Barbara Maxson was arrested at 4 a.m. and taken to Torrance Memorial Hospital Medical Center for psychiatric evaluation, police said. Wednesday evening the woman had fired a gun through a sliding glass door, grazing the head of Capt. Steven Gates, brother of Police Chief Daryl Gates, police said.

“We tried to wait her out, but that didn’t work in her case,” Police Cmdr. William Booth said. “We were glad to get her out without harming her.”

Gates, 41, had approached the house at 5:20 p.m. to try to persuade the woman to surrender. He was treated at Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital for a superficial head wound and facial cuts from glass fragments, Massey said.

Shots rang out from the house throughout the evening, Booth said. Police, he said, did not return the fire.

SWAT team officers shot out the house’s outdoor lights and used the department’s tank-like battering ram--usually deployed to enter fortified drug houses--to break through security bars on the windows, Booth said.