Catfish cop Austin Lee Edwards used his own gun to kill himself
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Virginia State Trooper accused of ‘catfishing’ a 15-year-old girl and then killing three of her family members, fatally shot himself using his own service weapon at the following a law enforcement pursuit.
Austin Lee Edwards, who posed as a 17-year-old boy online to solicit nude photos of the teenager, killed himself in a shootout with San Bernardino sheriff’s deputies in late November.
“Detectives have determined that the weapon used was an Edwards Department-issued semi-automatic duty pistol,” the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said Friday in an email to the Los Angeles Times.
The teenager’s grandparents, Mark Winek, 69, and Sharie Winek, 65, were found dead inside the home.
Brooke Winek, 38, the mother of the 15-year-old girl, was one of the victims killed.
Edwards traveled across the country from Virginia to the teenager’s Riverside home. After shooting the girl’s mother and grandparents, authorities said he set his house on fire and left with the girl, ultimately killing himself.
Virginia State Police said this week Edward’s hiring was the result of ‘human error’ after it was revealed he was detained in 2016 for a psychiatric evaluation following a death threats against his father and against himself.
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New York Post
