Searcher dies while seeking missing Mount Baldy hiker

LOS ANGELES — The search for a missing Mount Baldy hiker has been suspended after a searcher died Saturday, authorities said.

Tim Staples, 32, was a teacher and a volunteer for nine years with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department West Valley Search & Rescue Team.

Staples became separated from his partner. He was later spotted by helicopter in an ice chute after apparently falling to his death, authorities said.

Staples, who was married in June, was among more than 100 volunteers who have been scouring the area northwest of Los Angeles for nearly a week.

Sreenivas “Sree” Mokkapati, 52, vanished on Dec. 8 after becoming separated from a group of hikers. Friends and relatives said the Irvine man was an experienced hiker who had climbed the mountain several times but was only prepared for a day hike.

ONTARIO — Two children and a woman identified as a San Bernardino County probation officer were found dead inside a home Saturday after police opened fire on the armed woman and she barricaded herself inside, authorities told KABC-TV.

The incident occurred after officers responded to a 911 call at 2:30 a.m. and arrived at the home to find the suspect’s husband shot and critically wounded, authorities said.

The man was standing behind a screen door when two officers approached, said Ontario Police Department Sgt. Bill Russell, and “as he was stepping out of the way an officer-involved shooting occurred in which the officers engaged in gunfire with a female inside the house.”