 |
| Photo Credit: AP., |
LOS ANGELES (AP) — An abducted 15-year-old girl and her father — a fugitive wanted in the death of the teen’s mother — were both killed amid a shootout with law enforcement Tuesday on a highway in California’s high desert, authorities said.
San
Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus did not specify whether Savannah
Graziano was shot by the responding deputies or her father. Anthony John
Graziano, 45, had allegedly killed his estranged wife the day before and
abducted their daughter.
Investigators
had issued an Amber Alert after Graziano fled. He was described as armed and
dangerous.
A 911 caller
reported seeing the suspect’s Nissan Frontier around Barstow on Tuesday, according
the sheriff’s department. Deputies located the pickup truck and chased it on
the highway for around 45 miles (70 kilometers).
Throughout
the chase, Graziano — and possibly his daughter as well — was “constantly
shooting back at the deputies” through the truck’s rear window, Dicus said.
The shooter
put several rounds through a patrol car’s windshield and later disabled a
second pursuing vehicle, the sheriff said.
The pickup
truck became disabled on the shoulder of a highway in the city of Hesperia, and
the firefight ensued.
Dicus said
the girl was wearing tactical gear as she exited a truck’s passenger side and
ran toward the sheriff’s deputies. She fell to the ground amid the gunfire. The
deputies did not initially realize it was the girl who was running toward them,
Dicus said, because she was wearing a helmet and a military-style vest that can
hold armored plates.
She was taken
to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead shortly before noon.
Her father
was found in the driver’s seat and pronounced dead at the scene. A rifle was
found inside the car.
One deputy
was injured by shrapnel during the firefight, Dicus said.
Graziano
allegedly killed Tracy Martinez, 45, on Monday morning in a domestic violence
event in the city of Fontana, near San Bernardino, according to Fontana police
Sgt. Chris Surgent.
Family
members told investigators that the couple had been going through a divorce.
Martinez was rushed to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Fontana is
about 35 miles (55 kilometers) south of Hesperia, on the other side of the in
San Gabriel Mountains.