Police have arrested a man suspected of slaying four people, including three homeless men, who was already in custody when they linked him to the killings in California.
Beverly Hills Police arrested Jerrid Joseph Powell, 33, for the deaths of three homeless men who were shot while sleeping alone on a sidewalk or alley in Los Angeles on Saturday. The serial killings spanned from Sunday to Wednesday of last week.
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Here is everything to know about Powell and the four fatal shootings.
Who are Jerrid Joseph Powell and the victims?
Powell is accused of killing the homeless men over three days — on Nov. 26, Nov. 27, and Nov. 29. On the Tuesday between the homeless killings, Powell traveled to San Dimas, California, and killed a county employee during a home invasion.
The victims are Jose Bolanos, 37, who was found dead on Nov. 26 near the intersection of 110th Street and Vermont Avenue; Mark Diggs, 62, who was shot and killed at 4:45 a.m. on Nov. 27 downtown at the 600 block of Mateo Street near the Los Angeles River; and an unnamed 52-year-old man who was found dead around 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday near Avenue 18 and Pasadena Avenue, north of downtown.
On Tuesday, Powell allegedly shot and killed Nicholas Simbolon, 42, a father of two who worked as a project manager for the Los Angeles County Chief Executive Office in the information technology department. Powell allegedly followed the victim from a charging station in West Covina, California, to the victim’s home in San Dimas.
“Upon taking the personal belongings, the suspect senselessly shot the victim and fled the crime scene,” the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in a press release.
Powell was due in court on Monday at 11:30 a.m. Eastern time.
How did law enforcement arrest Powell?
Powell was taken into custody for Simbolon’s death on Thursday, officials said on Saturday. Police pulled Powell over during a traffic stop, and his physique and dark-colored sedan, a 2024 Gray BMW, matched photos taken at all three homicide scenes.
The handgun found in Powell’s car was “positively identified” as the weapon used in the four fatal shootings, Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore told reporters via USA Today. Powell was detained by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department on a $2.1 million bond, per ABC News.
Authorities announced Friday that they were looking for a possible “serial killer,” with officials issuing regional warnings to people living on the streets that the suspect, now named as Powell, might be targeting homeless people across a 12-mile stretch from South Los Angeles to the northern part of the city’s downtown area.
Police used a controversial technology that Sheriff Robert Luna described as an “automatic license plate reader system” that allowed police officers in Beverly Hills, California, to identify Powell’s car.
“We know there’s controversy out there about the usage of this system,” Luna said. “But let me tell our community something: If we did not enter that plate into this system, this individual that we believe is responsible for at least four murders may have been out there and reoffended. He was victimizing, as was said, some of our most vulnerable community members.”
Moore echoed Luna’s comments, stating that without the license plate reader, “this individual, I am convinced, would still be moving about the city, in the region, and killing individuals, innocent individuals, helpless individuals.”
What was Powell’s motive for the four shootings?
Moore said there has not been a motive established in the shootings. He said the men were killed “without provocation.”
However, Moore said he does not believe Powell started killing on Nov. 26, insinuating that more homicides could have taken place previously. He pointed to the possibility of other robberies or crimes committed outside of the Los Angeles region, as Powell showed a willingness to travel to San Dimas, which is about a 30- to 40-minute drive away.
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“I’m highly suspicious of that. I don’t see how when you look at the sequence of accounts in four days, four individuals are brutally murdered, and the manner in which they occurred,” Moore said. “I’m highly suspicious that this did not start just Sunday morning, less than a week ago.”
Moore said to ABC News that if Powell is found to have committed other crimes, police want to make sure “that he’s held accountable for each and every one of them.”
