LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Jack LaLanne, a one-time sugar-holic who became a television fitness guru preaching exercise and healthy diet to a generation of American housewives, died on Sunday at age 96, his daughter said.

LaLanne, who became U.S. television fixture in his close-fitting jumpsuit starting in 1959 and came to be regarded as the father of the modern fitness movement, succumbed to pneumonia following a brief illness at his home in Morro Bay, along the California's central coast.

"He was surrounded by his family and passed very peacefully and in no distress ... and with the football game on Sunday, so everything was normal," Yvonne LaLanne, 66, told Reuters.

She said her father had remained active until a few months ago, including the taping of a recent public TV special.

Well into his 90s, LaLanne exercised for two hours a day. A typical workout would be 90 minutes of weightlifting and 30 minutes of swimming, changing his routine every 30 days.

He preached the gospel of exercise, raw vegetables and clean living long after his contemporaries had traded in their bicycles for nursing home beds.

"I can't die," LaLanne would say. "It would ruin my image."

LaLanne was born Francois Henri LaLanne on September 26, 1914, in San Francisco, the son of French immigrants. He said he grew into a "sugar-holic" who suffered terrible headaches, mood swings and depression.

In desperation when he was 14, LaLanne's mother took him to hear health lecturer Paul Bragg, who urged followers to exercise and eat unprocessed foods.

The young LaLanne swore off white flour, most fat and sugar and began eating more fruits and vegetables. By age 15, he had built a backyard gym of climbing ropes, chin-up bars, sit-up machines and weights.

Soon, LaLanne, who was only 5 feet, 6 inches tall, was playing high school football. He added weight-lifting to recover from a football injury and was hooked.

LaLanne opened the nation's first modern health club in Oakland, California, in 1936. It had a gym, juice bar and health food store. Soon there were 100 gyms nationwide.

Without bothering with patents, LaLanne designed his own exercise equipment, which he had built by a blacksmith. In 1951, he started using television to get the first generation of couch potatoes to try jumping jacks, push-ups and sit-ups.

"The Jack LaLanne Show," which went national in 1959, showed housewives how to work out and eat right, becoming a staple of U.S. daytime television during a 34-year run.

He also was known for a series of promotional fitness stunts. At age 45, in 1959, he did 1,000 push-ups and 1,000 chin-ups in 86 minutes. In 1984 a 70-year-old LaLanne had himself shackled and handcuffed and towed 70 boats 1.5 miles in Long Beach Harbor.

LaLanne said in 2007 his focus was always to help people the way Paul Bragg had helped him, adding, "Billy Graham is for the hereafter, I'm for the here and now!"

(Additional reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Bill Trott and Chris Wilson)

DETROIT (Reuters) – A gunman opened fire inside a Detroit police station on Sunday, wounding four police officers, including a commander, before the attacker was shot and killed, Police Chief Ralph Godbee said.

The precise circumstances of the attack remained sketchy, but the chief, speaking at a news conference, said the most seriously wounded of the officers was a commander who was shot in the lower back.

However, Godbee said, the commander emerged from surgery with a favorable prognosis, "and we're very encouraged by the doctor's report."

"As a department, we're just very sobered by the events, but very relieved that it appears to be that all of our officers are going to be OK," Godbee told reporters.

In addition to the commander, one police sergeant was struck by gunfire in the chest, but her bullet-resistant vest "deflected any major injury," and she was released from the hospital after treatment, Godbee said.

Two other officers, including a second sergeant, suffered graze wounds to the head, but both men were conscious, alert and talking, and were expected to fully recover, he said.

Police returned fire and the gunman was shot dead, Godbee said. He said it was too soon to characterize the gunman's motives.

Police said they have identified the shooter, but would only publicly say that he was a 35-year-old black male.

"We have closed the 6th and 8th precinct to ensure the safety of our officers. It is an active crime scene and our investigation is ongoing," said Sergeant Erin Stephens, a spokeswoman for the Detroit Police Department.

Godbee said that in light of Sunday's incident, and the shooting rampage two weeks ago that left six dead in Tucson, Arizona, his department would be reassessing its security procedures.

(Additional reporting by Eric Johnson in Chicago; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Jerry Norton)

SEATTLE (Reuters) – A shooting on Sunday at a Wal-Mart store in Port Orchard, Washington, just west of Seattle, left two people dead and two sheriff's deputies wounded, authorities said.

A suspected gunman and a young woman were killed in the gunfire, but it was not immediately certain whether they were together or what link if any there was between them, Washington State Patrol spokeswoman Krista Hedstrom told Reuters.

"We believe she was with him, it's just that their association is unknown," Hedstrom said.

She said deputies were called to the Wal-Mart in response to a report of a suspicious person outside the store, and that the suspect opened fire on the two officers when they confronted him.

The suspect was killed as he tried to flee and deputies returned fire. A third, female deputy on the scene was unharmed, but Hedstrom said it was not clear who shot the gunman or the woman who died.

Three people struck by gunfire were taken to Tacoma General Hospital -- two male sheriff's deputies and the young woman, who subsequently died, Hedstrom said.

The deputies' injuries were not life-threatening, she added.

A hospital spokeswoman told Reuters she had no further information about the people admitted. Authorities have not released the identities of any of the people involved in the incident.

Port Orchard sits on a Puget Sound inlet opposite a naval shipyard south of Bainbridge Island and about 10 miles west of Seattle.

(Reporting by Bill Rigby in Seattle; Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Jerry Norton)