Tyler Honeycutt found dead after police standoff, ex-coach says

LOS ANGELES — A former coach and family friend says onetime Sacramento Kings and UCLA basketball player Tyler Honeycutt was found dead after a standoff with Los Angeles police.

Bort Escoto, who coached Honeycutt at Sylmar High School, tells the Los Angeles Times the player’s mother called him early Saturday and said her son took his own life.

The Los Angeles Police Department says it responded Friday afternoon to a report of a man with a gun and during the initial encounter, the suspect fired a shot out of a residence and officers returned fire.

Crisis negotiators were called and a SWAT team finally found an unresponsive man who was pronounced dead by paramedics.

The department, which did not identify the man, says he appears to have died of a self-inflicted gunshot.