Suspect in Chasen murder killed himself as police closed in

The L.A. Times is reporting that "a man described as a suspect in the slaying of veteran Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen fatally shot himself at a Hollywood apartment house Wednesday evening as Beverly Hills police were serving a search warrant there." He had been under surveillance for an undisclosed amount of time, the LAT's Andrew Blankstein reports.

Update from Deadline:

At an impromptu cops' news conference, these details were confirmed: Beverly Hills Police at 5:30 PM went to serve a search warrant on a man at the Harvey Apartments in a seedy part of Los Angeles at on 5640 Santa Monica Boulevard between N Wilton and Western Ave near Hollywood. He'd been under surveillance. But the unidentified "person of interest" -- as he was called by detectives tonight at the press conference -- had a handgun and fatally shot himself after 6 PM just as the police were approaching in the lobby. He died of a "self-inflicted" gunshot and was pronounced dead at the scene. Right now there is a massive police and press presence at the Harvey Apartments because this is the first public development related to the case that has intense interest in Hollywood and beyond....

Based on a police source with knowledge of the investigation, authorities have been investigating anybody on Chasen’s personal computer list who also belonged to certain gun clubs. The police source claimed that the person who shot Chasen clearly had “a very steady hand,” and likely belonged to a gun club....The source noted many of the details of the shooting indicated that Ms. Chasen knew the shooter. Her body was turned towards the shooter and the initial investigation indicated that there were no bullet holes in either her arms or back....

The police source noted that Ms. Chasen was not randomly targeted and that they’re convinced that her murder was not gang-related.