Suspect in San Diego firebombings arrested in Riverside County
A man who allegedly hurled firebombs at five targets in San Diego, including two police stations and a middle school, has been arrested after a high-speed chase that ended in Riverside County.
Edward Batties, 26, of San Diego was arrested about 5:30 a.m. Sunday in Temecula and jailed for investigation of arson, evading a police officer, two counts of burglary and two counts of possession of a destructive device, authorities said.
The incidents began Friday evening when someone tossed a Molotov cocktail into the fenced yard at the San Diego Police Department’s Mid-City station, where it rolled under a car but failed to ignite, said Maurice Luque, spokesman for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.
Minutes later, police received a report that a bomb had been thrown at nearby Monroe Clark Middle School. No damage was reported.
The next incident occurred Saturday about 4 p.m., when a firebomb was lobbed at a pickup truck in the Mission Bay area, destroying the vehicle, officials said.
“When we got there, the thing was fully engulfed in fire,” Luque said.
Witnesses reported that a suspicious person had been seen driving a white Ford Explorer.
Next, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at the Eastern Division police station about 7:30 p.m., causing no damage. Then one was tossed at a Serra Mesa home, where it broke a window but bounced away and burned out in a yard, Luque said.
On Sunday about 5 a.m., an officer investigating reports of a vehicle burglary in Del Mar Heights spotted the suspect’s pickup and gave chase. The suspect raced north on the 15 Freeway at more than 100 mph, tossing a gas can and what appeared to be Molotov cocktails out the window, officials said.
The CHP joined the chase about 20 minutes later, laying a spike strip ahead of the suspect at a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint in Temecula. After speeding over the spikes and puncturing the tires, the vehicle continued for about a mile before careening into the center divide, and Batties was arrested, CHP officials said.
Batties was being held at San Diego County Jail in lieu of $160,000 bail and was to be arraigned Wednesday.
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