Suspect Reportedly Admits Fatal Shooting of Officer

The man suspected of killing off-duty Corona Police Officer Patricia Dwyer in a freeway dispute admitted firing a 12-gauge shotgun at the van in which she was a passenger but said he did not know that he had struck anyone, police said Wednesday.

Harold Harvey Hawks, a 26-year-old sheet metal worker, told investigators that he just wanted to scare the driver of a van that flashed its bright lights and tried to pass him on the Riverside Freeway on Friday night, Corona Police Detective Dale Stewart said.

Stewart questioned Hawks late Tuesday after a telephone tip led police to wait for the suspect at Hawks’ home in Pomona and at a friend’s house nearby.

Hawks was taking his 2-year-old son to the mountains for the weekend when, in anger, he fired a single shot at the Dwyer family’s van, Stewart said. The boy, who lives with Hawks’ estranged wife, apparently was asleep at the time of the shooting.

Wounded in Attack

Wendy Varga, another van passenger, was wounded in the attack and was listed in good condition at Corona Community Hospital.

After Hawks left the freeway at Main Street, he bought gasoline in central Corona, returned to the freeway and continued on his way, Hawks told police.

Hawks was booked into Riverside County Jail on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and firing a weapon at an occupied vehicle. He was held there Wednesday in lieu of $250,000 bail pending arraignment Friday.

Stewart said Wednesday that Hawks “was surprised when I talked to him” and told him that one woman had been killed and another seriously injured by the shotgun blast.

”. . . He was upset over it,” Stewart said.

Police searched the house Hawks shares with his parents, finding a 12-gauge shotgun with a folding stock and pistol grip and ammunition for the gun, Stewart said.

Rewards Offered

The informant who led police to Hawks did not mention $15,000 in rewards offered by the Riverside Firemen’s Benefit Assn. and the Alhambra Police Officers Assn., officers said.

Patricia Dwyer’s husband, Mike, is a captain in the Riverside Fire Department. Varga’s father, James, is a detective in the Alhambra Police Department.