Ex-Judge Arrested After Shooting At LAPD Officers

A former L.A. Superior Court judge was arrested after allegedly shooting at police officers Wednesday night during a tense standoff at his West L.A. home.

The bizarre incident took place when James Bascue, a retired judge in his 70s, called police over to his townhouse located in a gated community 1900 block of South Barrington Avenue a little before midnight, LAPD Officer Liliana Preciado told City News Service. He told police that he was being held hostage, and that the people in his home were armed, the L.A. Times reports.

When LAPD officers arrived at the home, they peered in the window and saw a man sitting on the couch loading two guns. Authorities saw him point a gun to his head and they tried to talk him through putting his weapons down. Police then heard a gunshot inside the house and he fired the gun out the window towards the officers.

SWAT officers were then called in, and authorities tried to talk to him to get him to leave the house. However, it wasn't until his neighbor talked to him that he was convinced to step outside of his house and turn himself in.

Preciado told City News Service that there wasn't anyone else in the home.

Police arrested Bascue around 2:15 a.m. on Thursday for suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer. The Times reports that he was not placed on psychiatric hold, though NBC Los Angeles reports that he had undergone a psychiatric evaluation after the standoff.

Bascue was a judge for 17 years before he retired in 2007, the Times reports. Prior to that he was a prosecutor with the L.A. County district attorney’s office for 16 years, and also helped the department form the Hard Core Gang Unit.