by Kevin Cody
Shortly after someone fired three bullets at Tim Roth while he sat in his SUV at the corner of Hermosa Avenue, and 20th Street Monday evening, Hermosa Beach police investigators asked if anyone had threatened to kill him.
Roth answered, only one person lately, according to a source familiar with the investigation who asked not to be identified.
The suspect Roth identified was John Rodgers, 68, a longtime Hermosa Beach CPA and attorney. Rodgers’ name is at the top of the pedestal sign on the office on the northwest corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Gould Avenue.
Roth and Rodgers had been partners in the building, and had a falling out over proceeds from the sale of the building. Roth prevailed in a lawsuit over the sale, according to the source familiar with the investigation.
A bullet fired Monday evening at a car parked at 20th Street and Hermosa Avenue pierced a Hermosa Avenue garage door. Photo by Kevin Cody
Hermosa police responded to reports of the gunfire at about 8:30 Monday evening. They discovered Roth had suffered only minor injuries, despite three shots having been fired at him. A head high bullet hole was found in his front passenger window. Another bullet hole was found in a metal garage door on the east side of Hermosa Avenue.
That evening, using license plate recognition software, officers identified the vehicle two white males suspects had fled in.
Police Chief Paul LeBaron said during a report to the Hermosa Beach City Council Tuesday evening, that police located the car, and waited through the night until a suspect drove off at about 8:30 in the morning.
Officers stopped the car on Pier Avenue and arrested the driver, identified as John Lars Holland, 74. In the car, the chief said, officers found a nine-millimeter, semi-automatic handgun. Nine-millimeter shells had been found at the scene of the shooting.
Hermosa police then requested assistance from Manhattan Beach and Gardena police SWAT teams and the El Segundo police drone team.
Police surrounded a residence at Loma Drive and 10th Street, and after evacuating neighbors, detonated “flash bangs,” after which Rodgers surrendered peacefully.
“We used a little bit of information and a lot of technology to track the suspect to the residence,” Chief LeBaron told the city council.
Rodgers and Holland have been charged with attempted murder. ER
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