Police are conducting an internal investigation into the death of an adult film actor who fell from a rocky cliff after a standoff with a SWAT unit in Chatsworth. An internal investigation is launched after every serious use of force by officers.
Stephan Clancy Hill, 34, fell about 40 feet after the daylong standoff, according to police officials. He was suspected of using a sword to kill a colleague and injure two others last week in Van Nuys.
Hill, 34, was spotted standing on the cliff about 9:30 a.m. in the 8000 block of Azul Drive, said Officer April Harding of the Los Angeles Police Department. After holding authorities at bay for eight hours, SWAT officers used a stun gun to end the standoff, said LAPD Officer Bruce Borihanh.
"He jumped down off the cliff after he was tased," said Borihanh.
A SWAT team surrounded the steep mountainside after residents on Azul Drive spotted Hill's car, and then the murder suspect, in the neighborhood Saturday morning.
Hill, whose stage name was "Steve Driver," has been charged with one count of murder and five counts of attempted murder for a slashing attack at the Ultima DVD company's warehouse near Van Nuys Airport Tuesday night.
He had been living in the warehouse-style office in the 7600 block of Hayvenhurst Avenue, and was about to be fired and evicted when he allegedly went on a rampage with the sword.
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He allegedly killed fellow actor Herbert Hin Wong, 30, of Van Nuys, by stabbing him in the abdomen with what may have been a prop Samurai sword. Two other people were cut on the arm and shoulder.
Police said the victim and witnesses had been socializing inside the closed business at the end of a work day, when without provocation, Hill became enraged and attacked with the sword. Three others ran from the attack.
Wong had performed in videos under the name "Tom Dong" and had appeared in at least two productions with Hill. The company's owner said Wong had sacrificed his life so that others could escape.
In 1999, Hill was convicted of assault with a firearm for threatening to kill a University of Maryland college professor for not giving him an "A," reported a Washington D.C. newspaper.
