Police identified the suspect as Toai Pham, who detectives say was taken into custody on May 8 at a local driving range. After being booked into the Robert Presley Detention Center, Pham was later released and is expected to appear in court on June 23 at the Riverside Superior Courthouse.

    Investigators believe there could be additional victims who have not yet contacted authorities. Riverside Police Detective Steven Espinosa said detectives are encouraging anyone who may have encountered Pham, or someone matching his description, around the Mt. Rubidoux area to come forward.

    “If you have seen Pham or someone with a similar description approaching women around the area of Mt. Rubidoux, we encourage you to come forward,” Espinosa said.

    The investigation began after a woman contacted the department’s Public Safety Communications Center on the morning of March 9 at approximately 8:30 a.m. to report that she had been sexually battered while hiking in the Mt. Rubidoux area.

    According to investigators, detectives later learned that Pham regularly hikes Mt. Rubidoux during the morning hours.

    Police said the victim told investigators that Pham approached her during the hike and allegedly touched her inappropriately without consent.

    Anyone with information related to the investigation is being asked to contact Officer James Payne at (951) 353-7113 or by email at JPayne@RiversideCA.gov.

    Anonymous tips may also be submitted through the Riverside Police Department’s “Atlas 1” mobile app using the department’s secure “Send a Message” feature, which is available on both Apple and Android devices, authorities said.

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According to the Riverside Police Department, a teenage girl was in the area of Market and Sixth streets, near the Mission Inn Hotel & Spa, when an unknown man physically assaulted her, possibly inflicting injuries, shortly after 3 a.m. on April 25.

The circumstances were unclear.

Witnesses who were not acquainted with either party called 911, but when patrol officers reached the location, “They learned the parties involved had left the area prior to police contact, and no identifying information was provided,” police Lt. Steve Espinosa said.

“Officers obtained surveillance footage from a nearby business and gathered witness statements,” Espinosa said. “The suspect was identified as an adult male seen in the area at the time of the incident.”

Still-frame video images circulated by investigators did not clearly depict the individual, showing him only as a light-skinned Hispanic or Caucasian man with facial hair and partially bald. His dark-colored tank-top shirt appeared to have been torn open in the picture.

Detectives want to interview the victim, but her identity, too, is a mystery, according to Espinosa.

Her friends and family, or anyone who may have been in the downtown area during the predawn hours of April 25 and who spotted anything unusual in the vicinity of where the attack occurred, was asked to come forward.

Espinosa can be reached at 951-826-5959. Alternately, police dispatch is available at 951-354-2007.

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    The race — a 120-mile, multi-leg relay stretching from the Mojave Desert to Las Vegas — is expected to draw more than 3,000 participants from agencies across California, other states and federal departments. This year, 276 teams are signed up, including a strong showing from the Inland Empire.

    Local departments set to participate include Banning, Corona, Hemet, Menifee, Murrieta and Riverside police, along with personnel from several Riverside County Sheriff’s divisions, the District Attorney’s Office and the Department of Probation. According to race information posted at bakervegas.net, roughly a dozen teams from Riverside County are on the roster.

    For some agencies, the race has become a yearly tradition. Menifee Police, for example, have consistently taken part and train throughout the year to prepare for the physical and mental demands of the course. The department even shared highlights from last year’s race, capturing the intensity and camaraderie of the event.

    Corona Police also confirmed its team will be competing in the 2026 relay, continuing its involvement in one of the most recognized law enforcement races in the country.

    The 20-leg course begins around 7 a.m. Saturday along State Route 127, about 24 miles north of Baker. From there, runners rotate through segments that wind across desert highways, including Highway 178, before crossing into Nevada through Pahrump. The final legs push into Las Vegas, finishing near the Rio Hotel & Casino.

    The event is organized by the Los Angeles Police Revolver and Athletic Club, which describes the race as a test of endurance, teamwork and resilience. Participants face long miles of open road, shifting temperatures and the challenge of running both in daylight heat and overnight conditions.

    “It feels like a lot of pressure — you want to give it everything you’ve got,” Officer Heriberto Gutierrez said ahead of last year’s race, where he ran the final leg. “We train all year for this. It’s always on our minds.”

    Forecasts for Saturday show relatively mild conditions early on, with temperatures in the mid-50s at the start. By afternoon, desert heat is expected to climb into the upper 80s, while Las Vegas could see highs around 95 degrees before cooling into the evening — when many teams are likely to cross the finish line.

    Teams will start in staggered groups, known as flights, with faster teams typically leaving later in the day.

    Since its start in 1985, the Baker to Vegas relay has grown into a cornerstone event for law enforcement agencies nationwide. The race was paused during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 but has otherwise continued each year.

    Last year’s top team, a California Highway Patrol elite unit, completed the course in 12 hours, 31 minutes and 55 seconds. Riverside County’s fastest team — from the Sheriff’s Office — finished in the top 10 with a time of 14:31:38, the best showing locally.

    This year’s competition will again include teams traveling from across the country, including Oklahoma, Texas, New York and the Navajo Nation Department of Public Safety.

    For those taking part, the race is about more than the finish time. It’s a demanding test of endurance and teamwork — one that continues to bring agencies together year after year.

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RIVERSIDE, CA — A pastor is accused of sexually abusing two young boys in Riverside over several years, and detectives believe there may be others who have yet to come forward, according to police.

Investigators identified the suspect Thursday as Juan Barrios, 51, of Riverside, who worked as a pastor at Iglesia de Dios Israelita in Fullerton.

Police said a young man contacted authorities in May to report a pattern of sexual abuse that began when he was 9 and lasted into his mid-teens. His younger brother came forward with similar claims, alleging the crimes took place between 2009 and 2015 while their family lived at Barrios’ Riverside home, according to police.

The allegations led to an investigation by Riverside’s Sexual Assault – Child Abuse (SACA) unit, and detectives arrested Barrios on Sept. 8. Investigators said he was booked into the Robert Presley Detention Center on suspicion of multiple sex crimes and released on $500,000 bail.

Citing the nature of the allegations, detectives said they believed more victims could be involved and encouraged anyone with information related to Barrios to contact police at 951-353-7949 or 951-353-7133.

According to jail records, his next court hearing is scheduled for Oct. 21.

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Christopher Jacob Lennox, 27, of Riverside was arrested Sunday following a Riverside Police Department investigation.

Along with murder, Lennox is charged with attempted murder, domestic violence and sentence-enhancing gun and great bodily injury allegations.

The defendant, who is being held on $1 million bail at the Robert Presley Jail, was slated to make his initial court appearance Thursday afternoon at the Riverside Hall of Justice.

He allegedly killed Robert Joe Mageno of Riverside around noon on Easter Sunday in the 7600 block of Canberra Way, near Trautwein Road, in the Mission Grove quarter.

According to Riverside police Officer Ryan Railsback, the attack happened during an unspecified argument between Lennox and his girlfriend, identified in court documents only as “L.G.,” at the defendant’s residence, where several people leased rooms, including Mageno.

“The suspect retrieved a handgun and shot his girlfriend,” Railsback said. “When she fled the room, Mageno appeared from his room, and the suspect shot him. The girlfriend was able to flee across the street after the shooting.”

Witnesses called police, and patrol officers converged on the location, locating L.G. wounded but conscious. She was taken to a Riverside hospital, where she remains in critical condition, according to Railsback.

Mageno was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.

Officers took Lennox into custody without incident.

“They located a handgun inside the home … believed to have been used in the shooting,” the police spokesman said.

The defendant has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.

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Police in California are not immune from civil lawsuits for misconduct that happens while they investigate crimes, the state Supreme Court ruled this week, overruling a precedent made by lower courts that had helped protect law enforcement from litigation for decades.

The justices on Thursday unanimously rejected an argument by Riverside County that its sheriff’s deputies couldn’t be sued for leaving a man’s naked body lying in plain sight for eight hours while officers investigated his killing. California law protects police from being sued for any harm that happens during a prosecution process — even if the officer acted “maliciously and without probable cause.”

Now, the Supreme Court says police can be sued for misconduct during investigations. The ruling cites previous case law that defined investigatory actions as those before charges are filed. “The potential for factual overlap between investigations and prosecutions does not justify treating them as one and the same,” Justice Leondra Kruger wrote in the ruling.

Kruger noted the court issued a similar ruling in 1974. But in 1994, a state appeals court adopted a broader interpretation to shield police from lawsuits stemming from conduct during investigations. Lower courts have been relying on that ruling to dismiss misconduct lawsuits against law enforcement that did not involve prosecutions.

A lawyer representing Riverside County in the case did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday. This particular case centered on Jose Leon, who was shot and killed by a neighbor in 2017 southeast of Los Angeles in Riverside County.

Shortly after sheriff’s deputies arrived at the shooting, they heard several gunshots nearby and dragged Leon’s body behind a police vehicle, causing his pants to fall down and exposing his genitals, according to the lawsuit.

His wife Dora Leon sued the county for negligence and emotional distress, saying police had left her husband’s naked body in plain view for hours. The case was dismissed by lower courts that ruled state law provides immunity to law enforcement officers and agencies for police conduct during investigations.

The Supreme Court reinstated Dora Leon’s lawsuit. Kruger wrote that the lower courts’ decision was wrong, saying police investigations cannot be interpreted as part of the prosecution process. Many local police departments have routinely argued that they are immune from damage claims “the moment a police officer arrives on the scene of a crime,” said Richard Antognini, a lawyer representing Leon.

If the Supreme Court had ruled in favor of the county, “it would have essentially immunized them for almost anything,” he said. The recent ruling helps remove an obstacle for victims seeking damages from police misconduct, Antognini said. California laws still provide immunity to certain aspects of police investigations.

The ruling was praised by John Burris, a California civil rights attorney who has represented more than 1,000 victims of police misconduct across the country. “This should have a positive impact on police reform, because now the law has spoken,” Burris said. “Police should be trained and be better informed as to what their obligations are.”

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File # MA231010055

Details:

On May 10, 2023, at 9:00am, the Lake Mathews Station Special Enforcement Team, Investigations Bureau, Sheriff’s Emergency Response Team, Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit, Desert Search and Rescue, Sheriff’s Mounted Enforcement Detail, Sheriff’s Volunteer Mounted Posse, Unmanned Aerial Systems Team, and Riverside County Search Dogs began an area search for a wanted subject, identified as Christian Stuart, regarding a shooting inside an occupied residence investigation that occurred on April 11, 2023 in the 12000 block of Wildflower Lane, Lake Hills. As a result of the search, a deceased subject with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound was located in a heavily wooded area behind residences located on the 16500 block of Orangewind Lane, Lake Hills. Lake Mathews Investigators arrived on scene and assumed the investigation. The Coroner took possession of the body and will work on making a positive identification.

This is an ongoing investigation and anyone with information regarding this incident is encouraged to call Investigator Gil of the Lake Mathews Station at 951-272-5600.

For media inquiries regarding this incident please contact the Media Information Bureau.

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They were shot in lengthy standoffs or in seconds. They were shot when they stumbled toward an officer, hid behind a wall or drew a fake gun.

They were shot during wellness checks, homicide investigations and traffic stops. In the last 16 months, the California Justice Department opened 25 investigations of law enforcement officers who shot and killed an unarmed person.

This scrutiny was part of a new law that took effect July 1, 2021 — one of California’s answers to the emotional and political upheaval of the 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Before, investigations of fatal police shootings in California were conducted at the local level; officers were rarely charged. As of Nov. 10, the Justice Department has resolved only one of the state’s 25 opened cases. CalMatters found that the department has struggled to meet the goals set by the new law — including the attorney general’s own pledge to complete investigations in one year.

Internal emails indicate that Justice Department employees were worried that the new workload would overwhelm them. Department officials also have complained that the Legislature slashed in half their original $26 million budget request to cover these investigations. In the meantime, some of the officers in at least two shootings have been cleared by their local police review commissions.

The cases taken up by the Justice Department range from a man shot while fleeing a traffic stop to a teenage girl, killed in a department store dressing room when a bullet missed its target. Some were killed after they repeatedly charged officers, or menaced them with replica firearms. One man was holding a broom handle, another had his hands in his pockets.

Several had nothing at all. CalMatters is launching a review of those fatal encounters, with descriptions of the shootings and the case status. Where available, the project will post relevant records and coroner reports, follow lawsuits involving the shootings and update with the Justice Department’s decisions. Attorney General Rob Bonta has vowed the new law will provide “impartial, fair investigations” and independent reviews of officer-involved shootings.

The department will be deciding, among other elements, whether to charge the officers criminally. On Nov. 3, the Justice Department announced the resolution of its first case. That investigation was launched on July 15, 2021, when a 48-year-old man was shot in Hollywood waving a lighter fashioned with a pistol grip.

The department found it had insufficient evidence to file criminal charges against the two Los Angeles Police officers involved in the shooting. Neither officer agreed to be interviewed by the Justice Department, the state’s report showed. “Man, why?” asked one of the officers, heard on body camera audio moments after he shot the man. Bonta acknowledged that the investigations have taken longer than expected, and that the goal “has always been (to) get it done within a year, year or less.” The first investigation — which lasted more than 15 months — will likely be the department’s longest, he said, and that future cases should be resolved more quickly.

Since the Legislature halved its funding request, Bonta said, the state has to wait for local agencies to report their own fatal encounters — possibly sacrificing some of the department’s perceived independence in the eyes of the public.

Bonta said the budget reduction also prevented the purchase of a mobile forensic lab; reduced the department’s statewide shooting investigation teams from three to two; and, in at least once instance, resulted in a shortage of state agents to collect evidence and canvass a busy scene on Hollywood Boulevard. “We got the funding that we got, and we’re going to make it work,” the attorney general said. “We have no choice. We have to find a way. “Will we do it as fast as we want? No. Will we do it as well as we could if we had the full funding? We’ll always find a way.” Democratic Assemblymember Kevin McCarty of Sacramento, who sponsored the bill that became law, has argued that the department has ample funding to get the job done. “The idea was, they’ll get through the first year and then we’ll have a discussion this year as far as what adequate staffing looks like,” McCarty said. “It’ll certainly be a conversation in this upcoming budget year.”

The rules around a police officer’s right to use deadly force changed in 2019. Previously, an officer could be justified in shooting someone if doing so was deemed “reasonable.” The law changed that standard to say shootings are allowed “only when necessary in defense of human life.” Since 2016, state law enforcement officers shot and killed an average of 140 people annually. Of those shootings, about 40 were not armed with guns at the time of their deaths. Protests in the summer of 2020 focused on district attorneys in Los Angeles and Alameda counties who had never prosecuted a police officer who killed an unarmed person. That tension helped spawn the new law, which added a layer of accountability at the state level. But the attorney general’s selection of cases has not been without controversy.

As of Nov. 1, the department has had 56 cases referred by local law enforcement and conducted 40 on-scene investigations. In a Sept. 7 letter to Bonta, Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch criticized the state for turning down a potential investigation — the sheriff’s office found that a deputy had shot a man holding gardening tools. McCarty said he wants to remove the Justice Department’s discretion by bringing new legislation in January that would compel the state to review all civilian deaths caused by police officers, not just the shooting deaths.

The state’s caseload also would be expanded to include people who were armed when they were killed by police, McCarty said. “Any death at the hands of law enforcement would have a thorough, independent, transparent investigation,” he said. Among the 25 cases accepted for state review, similarities emerge, CalMatters found. In at least four instances, the people shot were carrying Airsoft pistols or rifles. These realistic-looking replica guns, used in a sport also called Airsoft, fire low-speed plastic projectiles and are not considered deadly weapons by the Justice Department.

By contrast, BB guns and other forms of pellet guns are on the deadly weapons list. Documents and body cam footage show that officers sometimes warned the people they were about to shoot, or offered them mental health assistance. “Don’t do this,” one Riverside County Sheriff’s deputy repeatedly told a suspect. “We don’t want to hurt you,” said a San Francisco Police officer to a man holding a knife under a bridge, alongside an unarmed man.

Both were killed by police. In some cases, officers fired within seconds of arriving on the scene. Sometimes, their colleagues can be heard on body camera footage telling them to slow down, hold up, wait. Some families are not waiting for the Justice Department to issue its findings. They have filed lawsuits.

DISCLAIMER: The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the various author’s articles on this Opinion piece or elsewhere online or in the newspaper where we have articles with the header “COLUMN/EDITORIAL & OPINION” do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints or official policies of the Publisher, Editor, Reporters or anybody else in the Staff of the Hemet and San Jacinto Chronicle Newspaper.

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File # PC230850021

Details:

On Sunday, March 26, 2023, at 05:59 A.M., deputies from the Perris Station responded to a suspicious person call in the 22000 Block of Cajalco Road, in Mead Valley; where a subject was disoriented and bleeding from the head. The subject was located and transported to a local hospital. The victim told deputies he was driving his friend’s black 2008 Saturn Vue when he gave two unknown male subjects a ride. The two subjects assaulted him, fired a round from a sawed off shotgun, and stole the vehicle. Prior to the assault, deputies learned they drove to a local convenience store where one of the subjects got out and went inside before returning. The vehicle was later recovered in the city of Moreno Valley. The Perris Station’s Robbery Burglary Suppression Team (RBST) assumed the investigation and obtained the video surveillance from the convenience store. With the help from the Gang Task Force and the Moreno Valley Gang Team, both suspects were identified as Anthony Atilano (28-year-old of Moreno Valley) and Daniel Quevedo (29-year-old of Moreno Valley).

On Sunday, April 2, 2023, at 1:00 P.M., deputies from the Jurupa Valley Station’s Special enforcement Team (JVS SET) were conducting a separate investigation at a residence in the 18000 Block of Haines Street, in the city of Perris. JVS SET deputies located Anthony Atilano during their investigation and detained him for Perris RBST. Shortly after, JVS SET deputies obtained information on their suspect and responded to a motel located in the 3000 block of La Sierra Avenue, in the city of Riverside. JVS SET deputies located the suspect in their case along with Daniel Quevedo in room 242. Perris RBST authored and served a search warrant at the hotel room and located evidence of the carjacking crime including the sawed off shotgun. Both Atilano and Quevedo were interviewed and later transported and booked into jail for multiple felony charges. This investigation is on-going.

Anyone with additional information is urged to call RBST Investigator Rooker at Riverside County Sheriff’s dispatch at (951) 776–1099, or the Perris Station at (951) 210–1000.

For media inquiries regarding this incident please contact the Media Information Bureau.

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EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The 43-year-old gunman who killed three students and wounded five others at Michigan State University had no apparent connection to the campus, police said Tuesday as they searched for a motive for shootings that terrified the community for hours.

Investigators were sorting out why Anthony McRae fired inside an academic building and the student union just before 8:30 p.m. Monday. An hourslong lockdown at the campus in East Lansing ended when he killed himself miles away while being confronted by police.

The shooting happened the day before the fifth anniversary of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting that killed 17 and is the latest in what has become a deadly new year in the U.S.

“We have to do something to stop the gun violence that’s ripping apart our communities,” President Joe Biden said in a speech Tuesday, mentioning Michigan State.

Meanwhile, a school district in Ewing Township, New Jersey, closed for the day after investigators said that McRae, who lived in the area years ago, had a note in his pocket indicating a threat to schools there. But it was determined there was no credible threat, local police said later in a statement shared by the superintendent.

The dead and injured in the gunfire at Berkey Hall and the MSU Union, a popular place to eat and study, were all Michigan State students. Five remained in critical condition at Sparrow Hospital, said Dr. Denny Martin, who fought back tears during a news conference Tuesday.

“We have absolutely no idea what the motive was,” said Chris Rozman, deputy chief of campus police, adding that McRae, of Lansing, was not a student or Michigan State employee.

“This is still fluid,” Rozman said. “There are still crime scenes that are being processed, and we still are in the process of putting together the pieces to try to understand what happened.”

The dead were all from the Detroit area. Two gradated from separate high schools in the Grosse Pointe district: Brian Fraser, president of Phi Delta Theta fraternity, and Arielle Anderson. Alexandria Verner, a graduate of Clawson High School in another Detrot suburb, also died.

“If you knew her, you loved her and we will forever remember the lasting impact she has had on all of us,” Clawson Superintendent Billy Shellenbarger said in an email to families.

The shootings took place in an area of older, stately buildings on the northern edge of the Michigan State campus, one of the nation’s largest at 5,200 acres. Just across busy Grand River Avenue lies East Lansing’s downtown, teeming with restaurants, bars and shops.

“Our Spartan community is reeling today,” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Michigan State graduate, said at the morning briefing.

Biden pledged his support during a phone call, she said.

“We mourn the loss of beautiful souls today and pray for those who are continuing to fight for their lives. … Another place that is supposed to be about community and togetherness is shattered by bullets and bloodshed,” Whitmer said.

Michigan State has about 50,000 students, including 19,000 who live on campus. As hundreds of officers scoured the campus, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) northwest of Detroit, students hid where they could Monday night.

At 11 p.m., police were still searching for McRae when he turned up on school security cameras, and his image was quickly released to news media. An “alert citizen” saw the picture, recognized him in the Lansing area and contacted police within minutes, Rozman said.

“That was exactly what we were trying to achieve by releasing that picture. We had no idea where he was at that point,” the deputy chief said.

Officers confronted McRae about 5 miles (8 kilometers) from campus in an industrial area, where he killed himself, Rozman said.

In 2019, McRae was accused of illegally possessing a concealed weapon, according to the state Corrections Department, but pleaded guilty to having a loaded gun in a vehicle, a misdemeanor. He completed 18 months of probation.

A large police presence was in his Lansing neighborhood overnight. Suzanne Shook said she has lived a block away from McRae for about a year.

“We never spoke to him,” Shook said. “When he would be walking or riding his bike, he was always straightforward and wouldn’t look at anybody.”

Students, meanwhile, recalled the previous night’s terror. Dominik Molotky said he was learning about Cuban history around 8:15 p.m. when he and the other students heard a gunshot outside the classroom. He told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that a few seconds later, the gunman entered and fired three to four more rounds.

“I was ducking and covering, and the same with the rest of the students,” Molotky said.

Claire Papoulias, a sophomore, described on NBC’s “Today” how she and other students scrambled to escape a history class through a window after the gunman entered from a back door and began firing.

“As soon as I fell out of the window I kind of hit the ground a little. I just grabbed my backpack and my phone, and I remember I just ran for my life,” she said.

All classes, sports and other activities were canceled for 48 hours. Interim university President Teresa Woodruff said it would be a time “to think and grieve and come together.”

Dozens of people have died in mass shootings so far in 2023, most notably in California, where 11 people were killed as they welcomed the Lunar New Year at a dance hall popular with older Asian Americans. In 2022, more than 600 mass shootings occurred in the U.S. in which at least four people were killed or wounded, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

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