indica News Bureau-
An Indian-American man arrested on January 20 after he rammed his vehicle into a car carrying six teenagers is facing multiple murder charges. After the arrest, it was found that Anurag Chandra, had intentionally driven his vehicle into the car after he got irritated with the teens playing ‘ding-dong ditched’ on his door. He is facing three murder charged and three attempted murder charges, said Riverside County District Attorney’s Office said.
The Mercury News Reported that under California state law, if Chandra is found guilty of first-degree murder and one of several “special circumstances” about the crime are proven, he could be eligible for life in prison without parole or the death penalty, though capital punishment was suspended in the state in 2019.
Riverside County District Attorney’s Office said that six teenage boys were having a sleepover in Chandra’s Temescal Valley neighborhood, and one of them was dared to ring Chandra’s doorbell. One of the boys rang his doorbell and darted back into the group’s Toyota Prius. Chandra allegedly got in his Infiniti Q50, and chased after the teens’ car. He rammed into the back of the Prius and sent it veering off the road and into a tree, the district attorney’s office said.
Three of the teens identified as Daniel Hawkins, Jacob Ivascu and Drake Ruiz, all 16, died while the other three, an 18-year-old driver and two passengers, aged 13 and 14, were severely injured by survived.
Victims’ families told CNN affiliate KCAL that the boys didn’t know Chandra before they rang his doorbell.
District attorney’s office spokesman John Hall said, “It’s just beyond what someone’s reaction should be to someone ringing your doorbell and running away.”
Chandra was arrested in his home and booked at a Riverside detention center. He’ll be arraigned next month. It’s not clear at this time if Chandra has an attorney.
The CNN reported that the six teens were celebrating Jacob’s birthday on the night of the incident. The two younger boys who were injured were the brothers of two of the boys who died.
“Jacob was the eldest of five kids, and he was the third mother-father figure, so we’re all devastated,” Alex Ivascu, Jacob’s father, told KCAL.
Debbie Ruiz, Drake’s mother, called her son a ‘class clown’.“Joy and happiness were his main priorities in life. We had a lot of fun together”, she said to KCAL.