A 24-year-old old man and his girlfriend have been arrested by California police as suspects in connection to the road-rage shooting death of 6-year-old Aiden Leos. Marcus Anthony Eriz, 24, and his girlfriend Wynne Lee, 23, were busted after a massive manhunt and more than two weeks after the horrifying shooting that killed Leos.
Eziz and Lee were taken into custody outside their home in Costa Mesa, California, on Sunday morning and are expected to be charged in Leos' May 21 murder. Authorities said at a Monday press conference that Eriz and Lee are being interviewed and they are still trying to find out the motive behind the murder.
Nabbed at Last
According to officials, Eriz was the shooter and Lee was driving the vehicle at the time of Leos' death. Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a press conference on Monday afternoon that Eriz and Lee are likely to face different charges given that one was the shooter and the other was the driver.
Both the murder weapon and the vehicle they were traveling in have been recovered, Spitzer said. However, both the murder weapon and the vehicle were found at different locations from where the suspects were arrested.
Eriz and Lee are both being held in Orange County jail on $1 million bail each and will be arraigned in Orange County Court at 10 am Tuesday. It was previously reported that a male passenger in a white Volkswagen fired shots, hitting Leos, while another was driving the vehicle. Eriz fired shots at Leos after Lee cut off the car driven by the boy's mother, Joanna Cloonan on 55 Freeway.
Following the shooting, Leos was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. It is not clear what type of firearm Eriz used in the shooting or whether or not it may have been shown in his social media.
Officials said Eriz and Lee had been under surveillance over the past few days prior to their arrests. Authorities had received multiple tips from the public over the horrifying shooting of Leos. Police also managed to enhance an image of the license plate on the couple's vehicle from surveillance camera footage.
No Criminal Past
Eriz reportedly is a gun fanatic, with his social media filled with photos of him showing off his guns and firing them at shooting ranges. However, neither Eriz nor Lee has prior felony convictions, according to online records. It thus is quite surprising why they took such a drastic step.
Eriz is also identified as an auto-shop worker, although his place of work listed on his since-redacted page is not current, according to KABC. The owners of Platinum Collision, an auto body shop in Corona, told ABC7 that he had stopped working at their business in January.
Lee, on the other hand, is listed as unemployed on jail records. She is the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants who grew up in the San Gabriel Valley. However, unlike Eriz, his girlfriend has negligible presence on social media.
Police said that the 2018 Volkswagen Golf SportWagen SE that matched the description of the vehicle used in the shooting is registered to Lee's parents. This helped them track the couple. After delving into the couple's backgrounds, officials were able to find out they commuted along the freeway where the deadly shooting took place.
Police believe Lee was driving and Eriz was sitting in the passenger seat when he fired the gun into the back of Leos' mother Joanna Cloonan's car back on May 21.
Leos was shot in the back while sitting in the backseat as they drove along the 55 Freeway in Orange County en route to his kindergarten. Highway patrol officials said the road rage incident stemmed from "a perceived unsafe lane change."
