Police last week arrested an 81-year-old Southern California man they described as a “serial slingshot shooter” who had allegedly been victimizing his neighbors for about a decade.
Azusa police said they responded to a “quality of life issue” in the 900 block of North Enid Avenue and I learned this over the past nine to ten years, “dozens of citizens have fallen victim to a serial slingshot shooter.”
The man broke windows and windshields with his gun and at times almost hit people, police said. Inmate records indicate the suspect, Prince King, is 81 years old. Police did not list an attorney who could comment on his behalf.
Police served a search warrant in the neighborhood where the slingshot attacks were taking place on Thursday and eventually arrested King. Police said ball bearings and a slingshot were found in his home.
Azusa Police Lieutenant Jake Bushey told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune that police began investigating after the first slingshot incident, but have so far been unable to identify a suspect. Bushey said Saturday that he wasn’t sure how King was identified, but that detectives found that most of the bearings came from King’s backyard or “a nearby neighborhood.”
Police have not identified a motive “other than just malicious mischief,” Bushey said, according to the Tribune.
Bushey added that the shootings were not random, although he did not know why certain people or properties were targeted, the newspaper reported.
Some commenters on the police department’s Facebook post said their car windows were broken, but they could not be sure King was to blame.
King’s next hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
