By STEFANIE DAZIO | Related Press
LOS ANGELES — A California household is suing a Virginia sheriff’s division that employed a deputy who sexually extorted and kidnapped a 15-year-old lady at gunpoint, killed her mom and grandparents, and set their dwelling on hearth.
Austin Lee Edwards, 28, died by suicide throughout a shootout with regulation enforcement on Nov. 25, hours after the violence in Riverside, a metropolis about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of downtown Los Angeles. {The teenager} was rescued.
Edwards had been employed as a Washington County sheriff’s deputy in Virginia simply 9 days earlier than the killings, although a 2016 court docket order prohibited him from shopping for, possessing and transporting a firearm. The court docket order stemmed from a psychiatric detention after Edwards lower himself and threatened to kill his father.
The lady’s aunt, Mychelle Blandin, and her minor sister filed the lawsuit Thursday in federal court docket within the Central District of California towards the Washington County Sheriff’s Workplace and Edwards’ property. The lawsuit says the division was negligent in hiring Edwards and seeks damages by means of a jury trial. The sheriff’s workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Authorities have stated Edwards had posed on-line as a 17-year-old boy whereas speaking with {the teenager}, a type of deception referred to as “catfishing,” and requested her to ship nude images of herself.
The lady stopped responding to his messages, prompting Edwards to journey throughout the nation to her dwelling in California. The lawsuit alleges that he confirmed his regulation enforcement badge and repair weapon to Mark Winek and Sharon Winek, the lady’s grandparents, and stated he was a detective and wanted to query the household.
The swimsuit says Edwards slit the throat of the teenager’s mom, Brooke Winek, and tried to asphyxiate her grandparents by tying them up with luggage over their heads. At the least considered one of them was nonetheless shifting when he set their dwelling on hearth, the lawsuit says.
Blandin stated the killings “destroyed our household.”
“I’m bringing this lawsuit as a result of my household needs to understand how Edwards was employed as a sheriff’s deputy and given a gun when the courts expressly ordered he couldn’t possess a firearm,” Blandin stated in an announcement. “He used his place as a sheriff to achieve entry to my dad and mom’ dwelling, the place he killed them and my sister. I need the Washington County Sheriff’s Workplace held accountable for giving a mentally unfit individual a badge and a gun.”
Edwards was employed by the Virginia State Police in July 2021 and resigned 9 months later. He was then employed as a deputy in Washington County final 12 months.
The slayings — and their connection to Virginia — prompted Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin to ask the state’s inspector normal for a “full investigation,” which discovered {that a} background investigator for the state police didn’t test the proper database that will have pulled up the psychological well being order.
The state police, which isn’t listed as a defendant within the lawsuit, has since modified its employment processes and background investigation insurance policies and coaching.
A spokesperson for the state police didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark Thursday.
