MAN KILLED BY COPS HELD SPARK PLUG LAPD INVESTIGATING CASE AS POSSIBLE `SUICIDE BY POLICE'.

Byline: SUSAN ABRAM Staff Writer

VAN NUYS -- A motorist who was fatally shot by a 10-year LAPD veteran had charged at officers holding a spark plug, and officials were investigating Wednesday whether he intended to commit ``suicide by cop.''

Joseph Scott Spidell, 45, who led police on a 15-minute chase Tuesday night, appeared to be under the influence of drugs and could have a history of narcotic use, said Lt. Paul Vernon, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department.

Television news cameras caught the end of the pursuit, which ended about 10 p.m. on Woodley Avenue near Sherman Way. Police used spike strips to flatten the tires of Spidell's pickup truck, which they'd tried to pull over after spotting him driving erratically.

Spidell jumped out of the truck and moved toward police.

``He gets about two-thirds of the way toward officers and he's taking a shooting stance, then puts his hands in his pocket, then backs up to a shooting stance,'' Vernon said. ``He has the metallic object in his hands that looks like the barrel of a gun.''

Officer Tim Olsen, 31, shot Spidell, who was taken to Northridge Hospital Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Olsen is a motor patrol officer with the LAPD's Valley Traffic Division, Vernon said.

Spidell's motive is still unclear. Early reports said he might have been smoking a crack pipe and that he began throwing items out of his truck window.

``I'm at a loss as to why this suspect exited the truck the way he did,'' said LAPD Deputy Chief Michel Moore, the Valley's commanding officer. ``His actions resulted in the loss of his life.''

Video footage will be reviewed by a board of LAPD officers, but based on preliminary evidence, the officer was ``thrust into a life-and-death situation,'' Moore said.

Tuesday's incident was the second LAPD officer-involved shooting this week. Early Christmas morning, a rookie shot and killed a knife-wielding man at a San Pedro apartment. The man had attacked one of his former roommates and was about to stab another while police were in the apartment. When confronted by officers, the man, who ran toward his victim with a butcher knife, refused orders to stop and was shot.

Tuesday's incident appeared similar, and since it was captured on film, investigators will have more evidence, Vernon said.

``We're not afraid of the cameras,'' Vernon said. ``These officers are the best trained officers in the country. I think any reasonable person would ask themselves, what would they do?''

susan.abram(at)dailynews.com

[phone]

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

KABC (Channel 7) broadcast this image of a pursuit suspect leaving his vehicle Tuesday in Van Nuys.

KABC (Channel 7)