Police in Southern California are trying to determine whether there’s a connection in three shootings and a car crash. Two people died and three were injured Saturday.
A man fitting the description of a suspect in three of the incidents was detained, Banning police Chief Alex Diaz said. He didn’t know a motive for the incidents, which happened over less than an hour in the town 80 miles east of Los Angeles.
“At this point it seems random,” Diaz said. “There’s no correlation between the suspect and the victims at this point.”
Banning police first responded to an 11:36 a.m. call about a shooting and found one person dead and another wounded inside a vehicle, Diaz said. A white SUV was seen nearby, he said.
Seven minutes later police got a call about a woman who said a white or Hispanic man wearing a blue shirt and driving a white SUV fired into her car, Diaz said. She was injured by broken glass.
About 10 minutes later, a man was shot and wounded inside a vehicle parked outside a grocery store, Diaz said. Store security camera video captured a man whose appearance and vehicle matched the description given by the woman, Diaz said.
At 12:13 p.m., police received a call and found a vehicle that crashed into a wall. The driver was dead but police don’t know whether that incident was related to the others, Diaz said. The medical examiner has not determined how the man died, the chief said.
Less than 10 minutes after the call about the car crash, police in nearby Beaumont detained the suspect, said city police Chief Sean Thuilliez.
Officers heard about a man who was trying to enter a vehicle holding a woman and some children, Thuilliez said. Before that, residents called to complain about a man knocking on doors and asking about his children, Thuilliez said.
The man was driving a white Chevy Tahoe, Thuilliez said, and officers found a firearm inside. Police did not identify the man and said no charges have been filed at this point.
The condition of the injured people was not known.
Diaz said the man’s questions about his children worried police who went to his home in a nearby town to check on his family. His children were safe, Diaz said.