LA detective who testified at Rodney King trial kills self at sheriff’s station

LA detective from King trial kills self at station

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. — A Los Angeles police detective who testified at the Rodney King trial has shot herself to death after walking into a sheriff’s station.

Police said Tuesday that sheriff’s deputies are investigating what prompted Detective Susan Clemmer to kill herself.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore says Clemmer walked into the Santa Clarita station about 35 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles at about 9 p.m. Monday and was “acting in a strange way.”

Whitmore says Clemmer briefly talked to a male deputy. When he left the lobby he heard a gunshot.

Clemmer, among the first to testify in the King trial, rode in the ambulance with King after his beating on March 3, 1991. She testified he was laughing and spitting blood on her uniform.