Burglary Suspect Wanted In Shooting Death Of Covina Resident Joey Casias Arrested Following Armed Standoff
COVINA (CBSLA) — A man suspected of shooting and killing a resident following a car burglary in a Covina neighborhood Tuesday was captured Wednesday night following a four-hour-long SWAT standoff.
Thirty-four-year-old Trevor Thompson was taken into custody following a standoff at an apartment complex in the 5100 block of North Bonnie Cove Avenue.
The shooting death occurred at approximately 11 p.m. Tuesday in the 1800 block of Covina Boulevard. Neighbors in the area saw a suspect getting into an unlocked vehicle on Charter Drive, possibly to steal items out of it, according to Covina police.
When the suspect saw he had been spotted, he ran off. Police say a group of neighbors chased him down and confronted him on Covina Boulevard. During the confrontation, the car burglar took out a handgun and shot at the group, hitting one of them.
The victim, identified by family as 38-year-old Joey Casias, was pronounced dead at the scene. Casias worked as a UPS driver, and was the father of three children.
On Wednesday afternoon, according to police, another male UPS driver spotted a suspicious person on Bonnie Cove Avenue and recognized him from news reports as the suspect in the Casias shooting. The suspect then ran into an apartment complex, police said. A woman also told CBSLA that she recognized Thompson from a photo that police had released and called 911.
"I wasn't sure whether I should call or not, and then I thought, if it is him, he took someone's life," the woman told CBSLA.
Police swarmed the complex and formed a perimeter around it. The suspect, identified as Thompson, was armed with a handgun and refused to surrender, barricading himself inside the complex. At one point, he fired a gunshot inside the patio area of the complex, but no one was struck.
Following a nearly four-hour standoff, he climbed out of the patio and tried to run. Officers used less-lethal rounds to subdue him and take him into custody at around 7:50 p.m.
A gun was recovered at the scene, police said.
It's unclear exactly what charges Thompson will face.
