Crime & Incidents

On Saturday, October 3, 2020, at 3:15 a.m., Thermal Station deputies responded to the 49000 block of Grapefruit Blvd. in Coachella. Jose Angel Sanchez, 19 of Indio, was arrested for firing a handgun at a moving vehicle. The victim was uninjured by the shot and there are no suspects outstanding.

Prosecutors charged a 36-year-old man Wednesday with a brazen ambush of two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies earlier this month, an apparently unprovoked shooting as they sat in a squad car outside a rail station.

On Tuesday, September 29, 2020, deputies from the Perris Station Special Enforcement Team and Perris Station Patrol Operations received information regarding a wanted felon near the 16000 block of Quarter Horse Road, Woodcrest. Deputies arrived and located 27-year-old Damion Silvas of Woodcrest, 33-year-old James King of Woodcrest, and 48-year-old Heather Eklund of Woodcrest. As deputies conducted their investigation, they discovered a stolen vehicle and methamphetamine consistent with drug sales.

Further investigation in this collision determined that the male driver, identified as Josue Ayala Flores, a 33 year-old resident of San Bernardino, was driving recklessly prior to the collision and he was suspected to be driving under the influence of alcohol. Ayala Flores is also on active parole. On Sunday, September 27, 2020, Ayala Flores was arrested and booked into a local county jail for four counts of Gross Vehicular Manslaughter and one count of Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol - Causing Great Bodily Injury. He is being held in custody on $4’000,000 bail.

An organizer of a Southern California demonstration against racism was in jail Sunday on suspicion of attempted murder after authorities say she drove through a crowd and struck two counterprotesters.