LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California family is suing a Virginia sheriff’s department for hiring a deputy who sexually extorted and kidnapped a 15-year-old girl at gunpoint and killed her mother and her grandparents before setting fire to their home. Austin Lee Edwards died by suicide during a shootout with law enforcement on Nov. 25, hours after the violence in Riverside, California. The teenager was rescued. Edwards had been hired as a Washington County sheriff’s deputy in Virginia just nine days before the killings, even though a 2016 court order prohibited him from buying, possessing and transporting a firearm. The teen’s aunt and younger sister are suing the department, saying his hiring was negligent.
California family sues Washington County Sheriff’s Office after deputy kidnapped girl, killed her mother, grandparents
Austin Lee Edwards was prohibited from buying, possessing and transporting a firearm but hired, nonetheless.
