Death in a Special Family

It started with a 911 call: a man in the San Fernando Valley area claimed to have gunned down three relatives, and phoned in to report the deaths. The Los Angeles Police Department followed its routine—dispatching its SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactical) unit, a storied force that has been in on some of the most dramatic showdowns in recent California history. The team rushed to the house, fired in tear gas canisters, and broke down the front door. But this time the unit's luck ran out. Officer Randal Simmons, 51, a SWAT team member, was shot and killed on his way in; also wounded was Officer James Veenstra, who is expected to survive. By the time the overnight standoff ended, the suspect too had died, though the police have not yet indicated the cause of his death. Officer Simmons's was the first death in the line of duty in the SWAT team's 41-year history.

In some ways it is a miracle the SWAT unit's good fortune lasted this long. The team—a model for police departments across the country—was the tip of the spear during a four-hour shootout with the Black Panthers in 1969 that resulted in six Panthers and three officers being wounded. Its members waged a fiery battle against the Symbionese Liberation Army in 1974, in which six members of that group died in a house fire likely caused by SWAT tear gas canisters. And the SWAT team waged a fierce gunfight with machine-gun-toting bank robbers on the streets of North Hollywood in 1997 that was shown live on television.

Glynn Martin, a retired 20-year veteran officer of the LAPD, is now executive director of the Los Angeles Police Historical Society. He has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the history of the department, including the SWAT unit, and counts Simmons and Veestra as close friends. Martin spoke to NEWSWEEK's Jamie Reno about Thursday's deadly standoff and the team's triumphs and tragedies over the years. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: First, what can you tell us about SWAT officers Randy Simmons and Jim Veestra?
Glynn Martin: Both are extremely capable and tenured officers, team leaders. And both are good friends of mine. Jim, who they tell me will survive and recover, was a couple years ahead of me in high school, and I grew up with his sister. I played football against Randy in the police department's games. He was a true professional. It's just a tragic loss.

Do you think in this particular case it was a good idea for them to go into the house? Aren't SWAT teams trained to be patient and negotiate before shooting?
Yes. Each and every member of our SWAT team is highly trained in crisis negotiation. I don't know all of the circumstances of this case as of yet, but the only reason they came into the house was they thought they had a chance to save lives. There were three victims who they thought they could save. That's what SWAT is always concerned with: saving lives.

So how and when did the SWAT unit come about?
A number of events occurred both here in Los Angeles and nationwide in the mid-1960s that led to the formation of the unit, which at the beginning focused primarily on antisniper capability. Nationally there were instances of sniping at police officers, and there was the Texas tower sniper incident. [In August 1966 a University of Texas student named Charles Whitman climbed up to an observation deck in the university's administration building and gunned down 14 people, wounding 31 others.] The idea was conceived in late 1965 here, after the Watts riots, but it wasn't until 1967 that the acronym SWAT was approved.