Two people were found dead and a man was taken into custody Saturday after a shooting spree in Banning that left three people injured, police said.
Officers responded about 11:36 a.m. to a call of “shots fired” in the 700 block John Street, where they found a deceased man and a wounded passenger inside a vehicle, Banning police Chief Alex Diaz said at a news conference. The injured person was transported to a hospital in unknown condition.
Police began searching for a white SUV in connection with the incident.
At 11:43 a.m., a car-to-car shooting was reported in the area of North San Gorgonio Avenue and West Nicolet Street. A woman suffered minor injuries from shattered glass in that episode, according to Diaz.
The victim told investigators that the shooter was a white or Hispanic man, wearing a blue T-shirt and possibly sunglasses, in an a white SUV.
Authorities were summoned at 11:53 a.m. to the 2100 block of West Ramsey Street, regarding an alleged attack on a victim whose vehicle was parked in the parking lot of an AMPM store, the police chief said.
“The suspect in that case assaulted the victim multiple times,” Diaz said, “and at one time used some type of weapon — at this point we’re not sure if it was a gun or a shotgun — to assault the victim as the victim was sitting in the car.”
“We do have some video on that incident, from the AMPM,” the police chief added.
A description of the assailant, said to be in a white SUV, was similar to the one given by the car-to-car shooting victim.
Twenty minutes later, a passerby reported a single-vehicle crash in the 200 block of East Lincoln Street. Officers arrived at the scene to find the driver deceased, according to Diaz. The vehicle had struck a wall at a municipal yard.
“At this point, we don’t know if there’s any correlation between that incident and and the rest of our shootings,” the police chief said. More information was expected after the scene was canvassed by coroner’s officials and Riverside County sheriff’s detectives.
At 12:22 p.m., a caller to the Beaumont Police Department’s dispatch center said a Hispanic man was attempting to enter a vehicle occupied by a woman and children in the 1300 block of H Street, police Chief Sean Thuilliez said at the press conference.
Officers went to the location, where they observed a person and vehicle matching the description that had been disseminated by Banning police in connection with the previous attacks.
A white Chevy Tahoe was pulled over and a man was taken into custody, Thuilliez said. His name was not released.
Shortly before being detained, the man had allegedly knocked on the doors of homes in the 700 block of American Avenue and asked about his children, according to police.
Diaz said a weapon, which he declined to describe, was discovered inside the Chevy. Investigators intended to recover it after a search warrant was approved.
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