Man Suspected of Killing Baby, Wounding Self

A baby girl was found dead and her father was critically wounded by a self-inflicted gunshot to the head in Pacific Palisades on Wednesday in what authorities were investigating as a murder and attempted suicide.

Authorities said the body of 4-week-old Amanda Force was found on the beach about 5:30 p.m. near Pacific Coast Highway and Temescal Canyon Road, four hours after she was taken from her mother’s Park La Brea apartment.

Authorities said the father, Paul Force, 30, apparently was distraught because the child’s mother had refused to marry him. Force was in critical condition and on life support systems at UCLA Medical Center on Wednesday night, authorities said.

Los Angeles police provided only sketchy details about the incident, and did not say how the infant had been killed.

Investigators found the father lying wounded near the child, Los Angeles Police Lt. Jeff Bertrand said.

“It appears to have been a case where there was a breakup in a relationship and he took the child,” Bertrand said.

The girl’s mother, who was not identified, contacted police about 1:45 p.m. to say that Force had abducted her daughter and had threatened to kill the child.

Investigators said that Force made at least two phone calls to the child’s mother, the first time threatening to kill himself and the child, and the next time suggesting that the child was dead.

Police said that after taking the child, Force apparently ran away. Several witnesses told police they saw a man fitting his description carrying a small child near 3rd Street and Fairfax Avenue a few minutes after the baby was taken, Bertrand said.

During one of the phone conversations, Force reportedly told the mother he had hitchhiked to Pacific Palisades with the infant.

The last time Force called, he told the mother he was at a phone booth near Will Rogers State Beach, Bertrand said. Police converged on the location within minutes, discovering the infant’s body and the wounded suspect on the beach.