Authorities Think They Have Answers in String of Mysterious Shootings

A man has been charged in camper's death and 10 other shootings around Malibu
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jan 7, 2019 5:14 PM CST
Mystery of Malibu Shootings May Be Solved
This July 1, 2018 file photo shows Malibu Creek State Park near Calabasas, Calif.   (AP Photo/John Antczak,File)

Authorities think they finally have an answer after two years of mysterious shootings in Southern California's Santa Monica Mountains, the AP reports. A 42-year-old parolee has been charged with killing a man as he camped with his daughters in a Malibu state park and shooting at 10 other campers and drivers over two years, prosecutors said Monday. Anthony Rauda was originally scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court on one count of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder, and five counts of burglary in connection with a rash of crimes in the mountains between Malibu and Calabasas, but his arraignment has been postponed until Jan. 22. Rauda was arrested in October after sheriff's deputies spotted him on a ridgetop dressed in black and carrying a rifle in his backpack. They had been searching on foot and by helicopter for an armed burglar who had broken into businesses and homes and stolen food.

Rauda was sent back to jail last month on a probation violation for being a felon with a gun. But the investigation remained open as authorities looked into his possible ties to a series of shootings that spread fear in the area after Tristan Beaudette, 35, was killed last year on June 18 while camping in a tent with his two daughters in Malibu Creek State Park. The girls weren't injured. The Los Angeles County district attorney charged Rauda with murder in that slaying and with attempted murder in the shooting of a wildlife biologist who was struck in the arm while sleeping in a hammock south of the park in November 2016. Less than a week after the 2016 shooting, Rauda is accused of opening fire on someone sleeping in a vehicle. He is charged with shooting at three other cars in 2017. Four days before Beaudette was killed, Rauda shot at a Tesla near the park, prosecutors said. (A capital murder charge has been filed in another recent shooting mystery.)

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