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California: 81-year-old 'serial slingshot shooter' arrested

Saim Dušan Inayatullah
May 28, 2024

Police said the suspect had been harassing residents in the city of Azusa, near Los Angeles, for nearly a decade.

https://p.dw.com/p/4gLwx
Police car in Azusa, California, US
Police in the southern Californian city of Azusa accuse the man of terrorizing a neighborhood with a slingshotImage: Facebook

An 81-year-old man will appear before court on Tuesday for harassing residents of a southern California neighborhood with a slingshot, US police said.

Detectives "learned that during the course of 9-10 years, dozens of citizens were being victimized by a serial slingshot shooter," according to a statement from police in the city of Azusa, which lies some 25 miles (40 kilometers) east of Los Angeles.

No injuries were reported.

'Malicious mischief'

Police said that the man broke windows and windshields with his slingshot. He also nearly hit people with ball bearings, they said.

The suspect was arrested on Thursday after officers found a slingshot and ball bearings while searching his home.

Azusa Police Lieutenant Jake Bushey said that most of the ball bearings were shot from the man's backyard.

"We're not aware of any kind of motive other than just malicious mischief," Bushey told the Southern California News Group.

This article was in part written using material from the Associated Press (AP) news agency.

Edited by: Farah Bahgat