Local News in Brief : Suspect Dies in Plunge

A suspected gunman, followed home from a Malibu bar in his pickup truck by sheriff’s deputies in a helicopter, fell 35 feet to his death from a cliff behind his Topanga Canyon home, officials said Monday.

A sheriff’s helicopter in the area spotted the pickup truck driven by Robert Collins, 46, after the Malibu Sheriff’s Station received a call from someone at Bruno’s Bar about 7 p.m. Sunday that a man with a gun had threatened customers and sped away in his pickup truck, Deputy Van Mosley said.

The helicopter followed Collins to his home about two miles away, on South Topanga Canyon Boulevard, and Collins ran into his house, Mosley said. But minutes later the helicopter’s spotlight found him lying in a dry creek bed at the bottom of a cliff behind his house.

Collins apparently slipped and fell 35 feet to his death, Mosley said.