LOS ANGELES — An abducted 15-year-old girl and her father — a fugitive wanted in the death of the teen’s mother — were both killed amid a shootout with law enforcement Tuesday on a highway in California’s high desert, authorities said.
San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus did not specify whether Savannah Graziano was shot by the responding deputies or her father. Anthony John Graziano, 45, had allegedly killed his estranged wife the day before and abducted their daughter.
A 911 caller reported seeing the suspect’s Nissan Frontier around Barstow on Tuesday, according the sheriff’s department. Deputies located the pickup truck and chased it on the highway for around 45 miles.
A teen girl was fatally shot during a shootout between her father and deputies in Hesperia. San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus said at a news conference that Savannah Graziano exited the vehicle wearing tactical gear and ran toward deputies. https://t.co/f4RHpO6dFT pic.twitter.com/XpiRh8U0dj
— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) September 28, 2022
Throughout the chase, Graziano — and possibly his daughter as well — was “constantly shooting back at the deputies” through the truck’s rear window, Dicus said.
The shooter put several rounds through a patrol car’s windshield and later disabled a second pursuing vehicle, the sheriff said.
The pickup truck went off the highway and became disabled in the city of Hesperia, and the firefight ensued.
Dicus said the girl was wearing tactical gear as she exited a truck’s passenger side and ran toward the sheriff’s deputies. She fell to the ground amid the gunfire. The deputies did not initially realize it was the girl who was running toward them, Dicus said, because she was wearing a helmet and a military-style vest that can hold armored plates.
She was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead shortly before noon.
Her father was found in the driver’s seat and pronounced dead at the scene. A rifle was found inside the car.
One deputy was injured by shrapnel during the firefight, Dicus said.
Law enforcement vehicles surrounded the vehicle driven by Anthony John Graziano, 45, following a gun battle with the man near Main Street on the 15 freeway in Victorville Tuesday/Family member stand at a memorial for the murdered mother near Cypress Elem. school in Fontana. pic.twitter.com/UFeKCfHeUm
— Will Lester (@WillLesterPhoto) September 27, 2022
Graziano allegedly killed Tracy Martinez, 45, on Monday morning in a domestic violence event in the city of Fontana, near San Bernardino, according to Fontana police Sgt. Chris Surgent. Family members told investigators that the couple had been going through a divorce. Martinez was rushed to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Fontana is about 35 miles (55 kilometers) south of Hesperia, on the other side of the in San Gabriel Mountains.
Investigators had issued an Amber Alert after Graziano fled with his daughter. He was described as armed and dangerous.
