Police killed a person in Southern California late final week after he opened fireplace on a SWAT workforce that had been dispatched to chase down his automobile on an eastbound freeway, authorities stated.
The person, recognized as Austin Edwards, 28, was needed in reference to a triple murder within the metropolis of Riverside close by and was thought-about armed and harmful, in accordance to the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Division.
Edwards was accused of murdering 69-year-old Mary Winek, 65-year-old Sharie Winek and 38-year-old Brooke Winek at a house in Riverside's La Sierra neighborhood, which had gone up in flames by the point police arrived, CBS Los Angeles reported. Authorities alleged that Edwards kidnapped a teenage woman from the house after committing the grisly crime that took the lives of her grandfather, grandmother and mom.
She was not harmed in the course of the police pursuit of Edwards and was taken into protecting custody, based on CBS Los Angeles.
Because the station reported, officers on the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Workplace consider that Edwards was concerned in an internet catfishing scheme that focused the teenager. They are saying he traveled from his dwelling in North Chesterfield, Virginia, to California in an effort to pursue the woman after buying her private data.
"That is yet one more horrific reminder of the predators present on-line who prey on our kids," stated Riverside Police Chief Larry Gonzalez, based on CBS L.A. "If you happen to've already had a dialog along with your children on the way to be secure on-line and on social media, have it once more. If not, begin it now to higher defend them."
Police say they noticed Edwards driving a crimson Kia Soul on Freeway 247 final Friday night time. As a result of the automobile matched an outline of the automobile linked to the triple murder in La Sierra, aviation models with each the sheriff's division and California Freeway Patrol adopted the Kia from a distance till a SWAT workforce was close by, authorities stated.
The SWAT workforce intercepted Edwards' automobile as he started touring east on Freeway 62, at which level, the suspect fled and subsequently proceeded to fireplace at officers, hanging the SWAT automobile a number of occasions, based on the sheriff's division. The automobile chase ended when Edwards "misplaced management" of his automobile and drove off the highway, the division stated, including that he was killed by officers upon stepping out of the Kia Soul and firing once more of their course. He was pronounced lifeless on the scene, and an post-mortem will probably be performed to formally decide a reason for loss of life.
By the point Edwards was killed, the teenager had already been rescued by police, the sheriff's division stated.