Robbery suspect killed after escaping from barricaded Tahoe cabin

Thursday, Jan. 30, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Peter Scott Richards, 26, was killed after a tense 24-hour ordeal in which he held his girlfriend and their four children hostage.

Richards was fatally wounded at 5 p.m. Wednesday after police tried to stop his car, which contained him and his mother, a few yards from a crowded Safeway market.

Officers tried to arrest Richards Tuesday after getting a request for help from Honolulu police who said he was wanted on robbery charges there.

Officers surrounded the cabin Tuesday evening.

Richards was contacted by telephone about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday but refused to surrender. But shortly after that, Richards let his wife and four young children leave. His wife brought out a cellular phone, the only communication into the cabin.

Police then evacuated nearby homes and ringed the cabin, thinking he was still inside. But police spokesman Chuck Owens said investigators now think Richards slipped away on foot at about the same time his family left - before the cabin was completely surrounded.

When police stormed the home early Wednesday, they didn't find Richards but did find numerous weapons, including a bazooka, plus handmade grenades and rockets and bomb-making material, Owens said.

Police searched for him most of the day Wednesday, until receiving a tip from an unnamed source that Richards was to meet up with his mother, who also lives in the South Lake Tahoe area.

Police detectives and FBI agents followed the mother's vehicle and watched as it turned into the Safeway parking lot. When it left with Richards inside, police decided to make a "high-risk" stop, Owens said.

"The suspect left the vehicle firing one or more weapons and officers returned his fire," Owens said. "Richards died at the scene from multiple gunshot wounds. No one else was hurt."

The car was heading in the direction of police headquarters, about a mile away, before it was stopped.

"I don't think they were headed toward the police station for Richards to turn himself in," Owens said. "Someone intending to do that would not be heavily armed."