Builder Doukoullos found dead at Hermosa Strand home following barricade suspect’s arrest [UPDATE]

by Kevin Cody

“Eleanor, come out with your hands up. This has been going on long enough,” a police officer called out over a bullhorn in front of the home of Demetrius Doukoullos, 92, in the 500 block of The Strand, in Hermosa Beach.

The officer was a crisis negotiator with the Hawthorne/Hermosa Beach Police SWAT team. The SWAT team had been called to the Strand triplex shortly after noon on Saturday, March 14, accompanied by the Hawthorne Police Department’s BearCat armored vehicle. Residents who saw the BearCat rumbling down Hermosa Avenue thought it was coming from that morning’s annual Saint Patrick’s Day Parade.

The crisis negotiators had been on the phone with Eleanor, who had barricaded herself inside Doukoullos’ home, on the bottom floor of the triplex, for almost seven hours. It was warm and sunny when the SWAT team arrived. Then a thick fog rolled in. It was almost 8 p.m. and dark when the crisis negotiators finally gave up talking to Eleanor by phone, and picked up their bull horn.

The crowd that had been gathering along the yellow perimeter tape could see officers with rifles on the balconies of the neighboring houses. The SWAT team had retrieved long metal rods known as breaching tools from their trucks parked along Hermosa Avenue. 

When Eleanor didn’t respond to the first bullhorn call, the crisis negotiator tried a second, and what appeared to be the final time, to coax her from the house. 

Eleanor came to the front door, with arms raised, wearing a black fedora, sunglasses and a loose fitting black suit.

The crisis negotiator calmly asked Eleanor to step into the front yard and turn around. She silently complied. Then half a dozen police officers cautiously approached her, cuffed her and walked her south on The Strand to one of the dozens of police vehicles called to the scene.

Following the arrest, Hermosa Police entered the house and found Doukoullos’ body. He appeared to have been dead for several days. 

“It began as a routine welfare check, and escalated to a suspected homicide,” Hermosa Beach Police Public Information Officer Sgt. Keagan Dadigan said on Monday.

Doukoullos leased the downstairs of the Strand triplex about a year ago, after selling his longtime Hermosa Strand home, according to Realtor Neil Chhabria, whose company manages the triplex.

“Despite his age, Demetrius was very active. He still drove. Prior to retiring, he built perhaps more homes on the Hermosa Beach Strand than any other builder,” Chhabria said.

Chhabria’s father, Raju, who passed away last summer, served as Doukoullos’ Realtor in buying and listing the eight Strand properties he developed, Among them was a three-lot home with a pool in the front yard that sold for $19 million, at the time, the most ever paid for a Hermosa home; and the “Rockstar House,” with a roof deck pool, which Raju sold to billionaire Rockstar Energy Drink founder Russell Weiner for $21 million.

Architect Louie Tomaro, who designed and built Doukoullos’ six Hermosa Strand homes, and one Manhattan Beach Strand home, described him as a gracious native Greek and an architect’s dream client.

“Demetrius gave us the freedom to design unique, interesting homes and was willing to spend the money it took. He was very spirited in talking about the best project possible,” Tomaro said.

Neil Chhabria said the triplex’s upstairs tenant called him Saturday morning to report a foul smell coming from Doukoullos’ apartment, and that a suspicious person had been seen inside the apartment. Chhabria said Doukoulos lived alone.

After his calls to Doukoullos went unanswered, Chhabria said, he called the Hermosa police to request a welfare check. The officers’ knocks on Doukoullos’ door also went unanswered. Chhabria’s property manager brought a key. Inside the police found a middle aged man Dadigan described as belligerent and uncooperative and who implied he had a gun. After he refused the officers’ orders to step outside, the police called for the Hawthorne/Hermosa SWAT team.

“The crisis negotiations team then worked into the night to build a rapport with the suspect, and to get him to leave peacefully,” Hermosa Police Sgt. Dadigan said.

Robert Simmons, 39, who identifies as a female, Eleanor Beaulieu, has been charged with homicide and is being held on $2 million bail. 

Simmons was familiar to downtown Hermosa nightclub owners, and was banned from one of the clubs for stealing from the band’s tip jar. 

Hermosa Police are asking anyone with information about Simmons to call the Hermosa Police at (310) 318-0360, or the Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500. Persons who wish to remain anonymous should call Crime Stoppers at (213) 628- 2013. ER