Police say man, woman found fatally shot at Beverly Hilton hotel

The Beverly Hilton Hotel. ASSOCIATED PRESS Enlarge

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.— Two people have been found dead in what investigators believe was a murder-suicide at the Beverly Hilton, just hours before the Daytime Emmy Awards are being held at the posh hotel, police said Saturday.

Police responding to a report of a shooting late Friday found a man and a woman dead from gunshot wounds in a hotel room, Beverly Hills police Lt. Mark Rosen said.

Police described the victims only as "elderly," but would give no other details on the victims or the circumstances of the shooting. The coroner's office picked up the bodies early Saturday.

The luxury hotel was also the site of Whitney Houston's death in February. The singer drowned in the bathtub of her fourth-floor room, just a few hours before she was to attend record executive Clive Davis' annual pre-Grammy party in the ballroom downstairs.

The 39th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards are scheduled to be held there later Saturday. The awards ceremony that honors the best in soap operas and talk shows will be broadcast live on cable news channel HLN.

Police would not comment on whether the deaths were connected to the awards. It was not immediately clear whether there would be any effect on the show.

The hotel also hosts several other annual galas, including the Golden Globe Awards.

Before the Friday shootings, Beverly Hills had just six homicides since 2008. Such rare cases usually draw national attention, as in the death of a Hollywood publicist who was shot while she was driving after a movie premiere in November 2010. Police say Ronni Chasen was killed in an apparent bungled robbery by a career criminal who later killed himself when approached by police.