Deputy in California slayings killed self with service gun - The Associated Press - en Español

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) — A Virginia sheriff’s lawman who constabulary accidental traveled to California to termination 3 household members of a 15-year-old miss helium tried to sexually extort online killed himself with a government-issued firearm, authorities said Saturday.

Austin Lee Edwards, 28, drove crossed the state and connected Nov. 25 killed the girl’s parent and grandparents and acceptable occurrence to their location successful Riverside, a metropolis astir 50 miles (80 kilometers) eastbound of downtown Los Angeles, authorities said.

That aforesaid day, Edwards died by termination during a shootout with San Bernardino sheriff’s deputies. The teenage miss was rescued.

“Our detectives determined the weapon utilized was Edwards’ department-issued semi-automatic work pistol,” sheriff’s spokeswoman Gloria Huerta said successful a statement.

The Riverside Police Department, which is investigating the deaths of the girl’s household members, has not said however they were killed.

Edwards, a nonmigratory of North Chesterfield, Virginia, appears to person posed online arsenic a 17-year-old boy to prosecute successful a romanticist narration with the miss and get her idiosyncratic accusation by deceiving her with a mendacious identity, known arsenic “catfishing,” constabulary said.

Authorities said the miss stopped communicating with him aft helium asked her to nonstop him nude photos of herself.

Edwards was a erstwhile Virginia authorities trooper and was a sheriff’s lawman successful Washington County, Virginia, astatine the clip of the killings.

Both instrumentality enforcement agencies person said they recovered nary informing signs astir Edwards earlier helium was hired. But a constabulary study from the Abingdon Police Department successful Virginia shows helium was detained successful 2016 for a psychiatric valuation implicit threats to termination himself and his father, years earlier helium joined instrumentality enforcement.

On Thursday — a time aft the Los Angeles Times broke the quality astir the intelligence wellness occurrence — the Virginia State Police said a precocious completed reappraisal showed “human error” resulted successful an incomplete database query during the hiring process.

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to calls seeking remark connected the 2016 episode.