Last Updated on September 17, 2019 by CCAR Staff
Riverside police arrested a suspect in a fatal shooting after he fled from officers and wrecked his car on the 60 Freeway on Monday, Sept. 16.
A caller told police the shooting happened on the 900 block of La Cadena Drive, Riverside Police Officer Ryan Railsback said. Officers responded at about 4 a.m., and encountered a man who had been shot. He was taken to Riverside Community Hospital, where he died of his injuries. The victim was later identified by coroner’s officials as Emilio Espinoza, 24, of Riverside.
Police received information suggesting that a suspect may have been in the area of the shooting, Railsback said. The department’s METRO team, consisting of SWAT officers, was dispatched to a nearby apartment, but did locate any possible shooter after conducting a search of the home.
Investigators managed to identify a suspect, and located him in a car along Martin Luther King Boulevard, near the 215 Freeway, Railsback said. The man failed to stop for police and led officers on a brief pursuit. He crashed his car into another vehicle on the freeway and tried to escape on foot, but was arrested at about 7:30 p.m.
Paramedics were called to the scene of the crash, but California Highway Patrol logs show that no injured patients were taken to a hospital, according to a dispatcher for the agency. Riverside police were continuing to look into the details of homicide on Monday, while CHP officers investigated the collision.
The suspect was later identified as Tyler Allen Diaz, 28, of Riverside. He was booked on suspicion of second degree murder, reckless driving while evading police, discharging a firearm resulting in great bodily injury and being a felon in possession of a firearm, inmate records showed.
Diaz was being held at the Southwest Detention Center in lieu of $2 million bail and was scheduled to appear in court at the Riverside Hall of Justice on Thursday, Sept. 19.
