A Southern California man who police described as a “serial slingshot shooter” was arrested after allegedly victimizing his neighbors for about a decade.
Azusa police said they learned, after responding to a “quality of life issue” on the 900 block of North Enid Avenue, that over the course of the last 9 to 10 years, “dozens of citizens were being victimized by a serial slingshot shooter.”
The suspect, Prince King, broke windows and windshields with his weapon and at times almost hit people, police said. Inmate records indicate King is 81 years old. They did not list an attorney who could comment on his behalf.
Police served a search warrant at the neighborhood where the slingshot attacks were happening on Thursday and ultimately arrested King. Police said ball bearings and a slingshot were found at his home.
Azusa police Lt. Jake Bushey told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune that police began investigating after the first slingshot incident but hadn’t been able to pin down a suspect until now. Bushey said on Saturday he wasn’t sure how King was ultimately identified, but that detectives learned most of the ball bearings were coming from King’s backyard or “a nearby neighborhood.”
Police have not identified a motive “other than just malicious mischief,” Bushey said, according to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.
But Bushey added that King’s shots were not random, although he didn’t know why certain people or properties were targets, the newspaper reported.
Some commenters on the police department’s Facebook post said they had windows of their cars shot out but couldn’t be sure King was the culprit in those cases.
King’s next court date is scheduled for Tuesday.
