text: After nearly six hours, a tactical team entered a Connect Wireless store Friday night to find an alleged robber "deceased apparently by his own hand," the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Crescenta Valley Station said. Kate Larsen reports from La Crescenta for the NBC4 News at 11 p.m. on Nov. 29, 2013. 
   
   An armed man who barricaded himself inside a wireless store within a Southern California shopping center for hours after he allegedly robbed a nearby business has taken his own life, authorities said. 
   
   After a nearly six-hour standoff, tactical team entered a Connect Wireless store Friday night to find the man "deceased apparently by his own hand," the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Crescenta Valley Station said in a tweet. 
   
   Man With Gun Barricades Self Inside Store 
   
   A La Crescenta shopping center was locked down on Black Friday after a man with a gun barricaded himself inside a wireless store, according to the LA County Sheriff's Department. Kate Larsen reports from La Crescenta for the NBC4 News at 11 p.m. on Nov. 29, 2013. 
   
   No shots were fired by authorities on scene, the department added. 
   
   Officials received a report of a man with a gun about 4 p.m. at The Marketplace Shopper Center (map), located in the 2600 block of Foothill Boulevard in La Crescenta. News broke shortly before 10 p.m. that the barricaded man had died. 
   
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   The owner of Connect Wireless told NBC4 two of her employees were inside the store when the man entered and threatened to take them hostage, but the workers ran out the front door the first chance they could. 
   
   No hostages were taken, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Crescenta Valley Station said. 
   
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   The situation unfolded inside The Marketplace Shopping Center, which also houses a Ralphs, Rite Aid, U.S. Bank and Starbucks, among other shops. Shoppers were seen running from Rite Aid and Ralphs Friday evening as authorities slowly evacuated the plaza. 
   
   Rite Aid employees told NBC4 a man went into the store's pharmacy, demanded a prescription and showed a gun. When a worker gave the man the pills he asked for, the robber ran from the store. 
   
   A 1-block stretch of Foothill Boulevard between Raymond and Rosemont avenues had been closed for the investigation. Sheriff's officials said all streets around the shopping center were reopened about 10:15 p.m. 
   
   The chaos developed the day during Black Friday, when consumers were set to take advantage of longer store hours and steep discounts to start the holiday shopping season. 
   
   Dozens of cars were in the plaza's parking lot when the situation began. A sheriff’s deputy with a rifle was seen stationed outside the doors of a Ralphs grocery store next door to the wireless store. 
   
   It was previously reported that the store involved in the barricade is a Verizon location, but rather, it belongs to Connect Wireless, a third-party vendor that sells Verizon products, according to a Verizon Wireless spokesman. 
   
   When the report first came in, everyone in surrounding stores had been ordered to shelter in place. At about 5:30 p.m., the Rite Aid inside the shopping complex was evacuated. Shortly before 7 p.m., the Ralphs was evacuated. By 8 p.m., the center had been emptied and shut down, the sheriff's department said in a tweet. 
   
   Members of the sheriff department's Special Enforcement Bureau -- the equivalent of a SWAT team -- responded to the scene. An armored vehicle was stationed outside the Connect Wireless storefront. 
   
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   More Southern California Stories: ||||| An armed man who was barricaded inside a cellular store in La Crescenta died “apparently by his own hand” after an hours-long standoff, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. 
   
   No shots were fired by sheriff’s deputies, who entered the store more than five hours after the incident began, the Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. No deputies or citizens were injured. 
   
   Deputies responded about 4 p.m. to a Verizon Wireless store at The Marketplace Shopping Center, located in the 2600 block of Foothill Boulevard, according to a Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station official who identified himself as Sgt. Waterman. The man, who was alone inside the store, was armed with a gun and threatened to commit suicide, Waterman said. 
   
   The man had ran into the store after stealing prescription drugs during an armed robbery at the Rite Aid Pharmacy in the shopping center, said Sgt. Burton Brink, the sheriff’s station’s public information officer. 
   
   Sheriff’s SWAT team members and deputies from multiple stations surrounded the store as crisis negotiators and Special Enforcement Bureau deputies communicated with the man, in an effort to persuade him to surrender, officials said. 
   
   Foothill Boulevard, which had been temporarily closed between Rosemont and Raymond avenues, was reopened after the standoff ended. 
   
   The Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station, on Briggs Avenue, is located less than a mile east of the scene. 
   
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target: – Black Friday shoppers were evacuated yesterday after a man with a gun allegedly stole prescription drugs from a Rite Aid pharmacy, then ran into a wireless store in the same California shopping center, causing an hours-long standoff with police after which the man was found dead, KTLA reports. The suspect died "apparently by his own hand" last night, according to the LA County Sheriff's Department; authorities did not fire any shots, NBC Los Angeles reports. The man had threatened to take hostages, but the employees inside Connect Wireless in La Crescenta's Marketplace Shopping Center managed to escape.