Former UCLA Bruins and Sacramento Kings basketball player Tyler Honeycutt is dead of apparent suicide following a police standoff, multiple sources confirm to Us Weekly. The athlete was 27.
PIO Josh Rubenstein tells Us Weekly that officers responded to a call for a man with a gun at Honeycutt’s Sherman Oaks address on Friday, July 6, at approximately 5 p.m. Officers made contact with a male in his 20’s upon arrival. “As they were communicating with the suspect he fired out of the residence and the officers returned fire,” he said.
Rubenstein noted that “no officers were injured and it was unknown if the suspect had been struck by the officers gunfire” at the time.
After barricading himself inside the residence, SWAT, Crisis Negotiation Team and MEU responded to the scene. Approximately 30 residents were evacuated during the incident. At approximately 2:30am SWAT located an unresponsive male inside the residence. LAFD responded & pronounced the male dead at scene,” Rubenstein said.
Following the standoff, the official account for the LAPD tweeted in the early hours of Saturday, July 7, that “SWAT entered the residence & located an unresponsive male. LAFD responded & pronounced the male dead at scene.”
They later tweeted that the suspect appeared to have suffered from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
UPDATE: Regarding last nights Officer-Involved Shooting in Van Nuys Division, it appears as if the suspect was not struck by any officer’s gunfire. The suspect appears to have sustained injuries consistent with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
— LAPD HQ (@LAPDHQ) July 7, 2018
A public information director and spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department revealed that a handgun was located at the scene.
TMZ reports that Honeycutt’s mother allegedly called police saying that her son was acting erratically.
Honeycutt played college basketball for the Bruins from 2009 to 2011 and was drafted in the second round of the NBA draft in 2011 by the Sacramento Kings.
