Saturday, Jun 5, 2010    Text size: 

Driver, during the standoff, held a two-foot-long sword and was carefully being watched by a semi-circle of SWAT members. Later, SWAT decided to move in and lasso him, while using a stun gun.

Instead of being captured, police say, he leapt to his death. He leapt off a boulder, sword in hand, falling about 45 feet to the ground below.

Driver yelled throughout the day atop the hill, "I want to die" and "It wasn't supposed to happen this way."

The cliff is near a home at about the 8000 block of Azul Drive, near the Chatsworth Nature Preserve. Police may have been tipped on Driver's whereabouts because the home was used frequently for porn shoots.

Driver has been at large since Wednesday night when he allegedly used a samurai sword to stab and slash employees at Ultima DVD's production facility in Van Nuys.

Police are investigating whether Driver became enraged with his colleagues after learning that he was being fired and evicted from the offices at Ultima DVD, where he lived.

Without provocation, police say Driver armed himself with a sword, typically used as a prop, to attack three co-workers. They were then rushed to the hospital where actor Tommy Dong died as a result of his injuries.

One victim has been released, the other remains hospitalized.

Driver, whose real name is Stephen Hill, can be seen handling a sword in many of the scenes he performed in and many reports suggest he had an obsession with weapons.