Death – Obituary – Accident and Crime News : Prosecutors in Los Angeles have filed four counts of murder against a local man for the fatal shootings of three homeless men and a suburban resident last month. Jerrid Joseph Powell, 33, also faces charges of residential robbery and being a felon with a firearm. The Los Angeles county district attorney’s office stated that Powell will be charged with special circumstances of committing multiple murders, murder during a robbery, and personal use of a firearm.
During Powell’s court appearance on Monday, his attorney, Carlos Bido, did not enter a plea. The arraignment has been scheduled for January 8. The public defender’s office released a statement asserting that they will vigorously defend Powell and hold the prosecution to its burden of proof.
Powell was initially arrested as a suspect in a deadly shooting during a robbery at a home in San Dimas. Authorities later connected him to the killings of the three homeless men after a firearm found in his car was linked to the shootings. The motive for the killings remains unknown, according to Michel Moore, the Los Angeles police chief.
The victims of the shootings include Jose Bolanos, 37, who was found dead in an alley in south Los Angeles, and Mark Diggs, 62, who was shot and killed while pushing a shopping cart near downtown. The body of a 52-year-old man was discovered in the Lincoln Heights area, and Nicholas Simbolon, 42, was shot dead at his home in San Dimas.
Authorities obtained surveillance images of a suspect vehicle, and a license plate reader in Beverly Hills alerted the police, leading to Powell’s arrest. George Gascón, the district attorney, expressed his gratitude to law enforcement for their efforts in bringing justice to the community and arresting the suspect.
Los Angeles county, with a population of about 10 million people, has the highest number of homeless individuals in the nation. According to a 2022 federal tally, the county is home to over one in five unhoused individuals in the US, with more than 75,000 people homeless on any given night.
Advocates for the homeless note that those living on the streets are more likely to be victims of violence rather than perpetrators. In a separate incident, five unhoused individuals were shot in Las Vegas, with one fatality. In Orange County, California, a former Marine was charged with killing four homeless men in a series of stabbings from late 2011 to early 2012. The suspect died while awaiting trial.