Editing Symbionese Liberation Army (section)

==== Police shootout ====
The next day, an anonymous phone call to the [[Los Angeles Police Department]] (LAPD) said that several heavily armed people were staying at the caller's daughter's house. That afternoon, more than 400 LAPD officers, under the command of Captain [[Mervin King]], along with FBI agents, [[Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department]] (LASD), [[California Highway Patrol]] (CHP), and [[Los Angeles Fire Department]] (LAFD), surrounded the neighborhood. The leader of a [[SWAT]] team used a bullhorn to announce, "Occupants of 1466 East 54th Street, this is the Los Angeles Police Department speaking. Come out with your hands up!"

A young child walked out, along with an older man. The man said that no one else was in the house, but the child intervened, saying there were several people and they had guns and ammunition. After several more attempts to get people to leave the house, a member of the SWAT team fired [[tear gas]] projectiles into the structure. SLA members responded with bursts of automatic gunfire, and a violent gun battle began. The police were firing semi-automatic [[AR-15–style rifle|AR-15]] and [[ArmaLite AR-18|AR-180]] rifles. The SLA members were armed with [[M1 carbine]]s that had been converted to fully automatic fire. Police also reported that the SLA had made homemade grenades from 35&nbsp;mm film canisters, and had thrown them at responding officers.

During the shootout, police continued to fire dozens of tear gas grenades into the house, attempting to force out the SLA members. About two hours into the shootout, the house caught fire, probably due to an exploding tear gas canister. As the house began to burn, two women left from the rear and one came out to the front (she had come in drunk the previous night, passed out, and woken up in the middle of the siege); all were taken into custody, but were found not to be SLA members.

Automatic weapons fire continued from the house. At this point, Nancy Ling Perry and [[Camilla Hall]] came out of the house. Police later said they fatally shot Hall in the head as she aimed a weapon toward them; Perry was shooting at them, and they shot her twice.<ref name="presslord">Bryan, John. [https://archive.org/details/thissoldierstill00brya ''This Soldier Still at War'']. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975. {{ISBN|0-15-190060-4}}.</ref> After Hall fell to the ground, Atwood pulled her body back into the house. Perry's body remained outside the house.<ref name="courttv">{{cite web|url=http://www.courttv.com/trials/soliah/slahistory5_ctv.html|title=SLA: The shootout|date=October 12, 2001 |publisher=Court TV|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070815204928/http://www.courttv.com/trials/soliah/slahistory5_ctv.html|archive-date=2007-08-15|url-status=dead|access-date=2007-08-18|quote=Perry and Hall exited the house, but were shot by officers who concluded they were trying to kill police rather than surrender.}}</ref>

The rest died inside, from smoke inhalation, burns and gunshot wounds. The coroner's report concluded that Donald DeFreeze committed suicide by shooting himself in the side of the head. Atwood, Willie Wolfe, and Patricia Soltysik died of smoke inhalation and burns. After the shooting stopped and the fire was extinguished, police recovered 19 firearms—including rifles, pistols, and shotguns. It was one of the largest police shootouts in U.S. history with a reported total of over 9,000 rounds being fired (4,000 by the SLA and 5,000 by police). There were no casualties among law enforcement, firefighters, or civilians outside the house.

The SLA leadership was decimated: Donald DeFreeze (General Cinque), Patricia Soltysik (Mizmoon or Zoya) and Nancy Ling Perry had all died.<ref name="5whoDied"/> The other dead were also founding members: Angela Atwood ("General Gelina"), Camilla Hall ("Gabi"), and [[Willie Wolfe]] ("Kahjoh", misspelled by the media at the time as "Cujo").<ref name="cujo/kahjoh">''The Voices of Guns'', p. 286.</ref> Perry's body was outside, but the others were all found in a crawl space under the house, which had burned down around them.

Area TV stations all covered the shootout and conflagration. They took advantage of new broadcasting technology, such as smaller portable cameras that made their mobile units more nimble. Holed up in a hotel in [[Anaheim, California|Anaheim]], the Harrises and Hearst watched the siege and destruction live on TV from their room.