'The Shield' Actor Michael Jace Charged In Wife's Shooting Death

Michael Jace, who played a Los Angeles cop in TV's "The Shield," has been arrested in the fatal shooting of his wife, police said Tuesday.

April Jace, 40, was found shot to death in her south Los Angeles home by police called there to investigate a shooting, Los Angeles Police Detective Lyman Doster said.

Jace, 51, called 911 to report that his wife had been shot, Detective Dean Vinluan said, adding that he "was on the phone with the operator." Neighbors who heard gunshots also called 911, he said.

"At this moment the motive of the murder is believed to be domestic violence," a police news release said.

Investigators detained Jace at the couple's Hyde Park area home Monday night and booked the actor on a homicide charge early Tuesday, according to sources.

Jace was booked into a Los Angeles jail with bail set at $1 million.

Two children were in the home when their mother was shot, Vinluan said. The children, whose ages he would not reveal, were taken to a police station and then handed over to a representative of California's Department of Children Services, he said.

The FX police drama "The Shield" was the biggest and longest-running role in Jace's 22-year acting career. He appeared in 89 episodes as Julien Lowe, who started as a rookie officer in an inner-city Los Angeles police precinct in 2002 and rose through the ranks to become a detective before the series ended in 2008, according to the Internet Movie Database.