A 34-year-old man from Brea has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a pre-dawn shooting in Wildomar, in southwestern Riverside County, left a 55-year-old local resident dead, the Riverside County Sheriff's Office said. The arrest, made at the suspect's home in Orange County a day after the shooting, followed search warrants served in two cities as homicide detectives worked to piece together what happened on a residential street in the early hours of Saturday, November 7.
Deputies from the Lake Elsinore Sheriff's Station responded to the 21000 block of Pecan Street in Wildomar at about 2:04 a.m. on Saturday, November 7, after a report of an assault with a deadly weapon, the Sheriff's Office said. Pecan Street is a residential area of Wildomar, a city in the Temecula Valley area of southwestern Riverside County, served by the Lake Elsinore station.
At the scene, deputies found a man with what appeared to be a gunshot wound, the Sheriff's Office said. Deputies provided lifesaving measures until paramedics arrived, and the man was transported to a local hospital in critical condition, where he later succumbed to his injuries, according to the Sheriff's Office.
Source: Riverside County Sheriff's Office via Elsinore 24/7
Victim named as homicide unit takes over the investigation
The Riverside County Sheriff's Central Homicide Unit assumed the investigation. Investigators identified the victim as Shawn Ripley, 55, of Wildomar. As the investigation developed, investigators identified Daniel Grossman, 34, of Brea, as the suspect in the shooting, the Sheriff's Office said. Grossman is alleged to have been involved in the fatal shooting; he has been arrested on suspicion of murder and has not been convicted of any offence in connection with this case.
Arrest in Brea, and a second search warrant in Fullerton
On Sunday, November 8, investigators served a search warrant at Grossman's residence in Brea, in neighbouring Orange County, where he was taken into custody without incident, the Sheriff's Office said. Investigators also served a search warrant in Fullerton, also in Orange County, and collected additional evidence. The Sheriff's Office did not describe what evidence was collected or what, if anything, connects the Fullerton location to the investigation.
Grossman was booked into the Cois Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta on suspicion of murder, according to the Sheriff's Office. The Byrd detention centre is one of the Riverside County jail facilities where people arrested in the southwestern part of the county are held while their cases move toward a charging decision and a first court appearance.
The Sheriff's Office has not released a suspected motive, has not said whether Grossman and Ripley knew each other, and has not released details about a weapon. Those points remain unanswered while the Central Homicide Unit investigation continues, and no account of why the shooting happened should be treated as established until investigators or prosecutors state it on the record.
Why the investigation crossed county lines
The case spans two counties: the shooting happened in Wildomar, in Riverside County, while the arrest and both search warrants were carried out in Brea and Fullerton, in Orange County. That geography is part of why the Sheriff's Office statement lists work by both the Central Homicide Unit and the Lake Elsinore station — the homicide detectives leading the case, and the station whose deputies were first on the Pecan Street scene at 2:04 a.m.
What happens next
The Sheriff's Office said the investigation is ongoing. The next formal step in a California murder arrest of this kind is a charging review by the Riverside County District Attorney's Office, which decides what formal charges, if any, are filed in court; the Sheriff's Office statement does not give a court date, and none is reported here because none has been announced in the sources for this report. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact Central Homicide Unit Investigator Deanne at 951-955-2777 or Lake Elsinore Station Investigator Garcia at 951-245-3300, the Sheriff's Office said.
Awaaz Punjab will update this story if prosecutors announce formal charges or the Sheriff's Office releases further verified details, including any statement on motive or on the relationship, if any, between the two men.