An 81-year-old man who investigators say terrorized a Southern California neighborhood for years with a slingshot has died just days after his arrest, authorities said.
The man, previously identified by police as Prince King, was found dead Wednesday evening in a home in Azusa, east of Los Angeles, police Sgt. » said Nick Covarrubias.
“We found no evidence of foul play,” Covarrubias told the Southern California News Group.
The man died of arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, according to the medical examiner’s office, which ruled the death natural.
The man was released on his own recognizance Tuesday after pleading not guilty to five counts of felony vandalism and two counts of misdemeanor vandalism.
Police said the man was arrested on May 23 on suspicion of smashing car windows and windshields and narrowly missing people with ball bearings fired by a sling. No injuries were reported.
During their investigation, detectives “learned that over the past 9 to 10 years, dozens of citizens have been victims of serial slingshots,” Azusa police said in a statement. last week.
Officers executing a search warrant found a slingshot and ball bearings at the man’s Azusa home, police said.
Azusa Police Lt. Jake Bushey said Saturday that detectives learned that most of the ball bearings were fired from the suspect’s backyard.
“We are not aware of any motive other than simple malicious mischief,” Bushey told the news group.
While police suspected him of vandalizing windows in his neighborhood for about a decade, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office charged him with vandalism from October 2021 to May 2024.
“We’ve been here since 2018. (It’s been) that long,” one of King’s alleged victims, James Mead, told the Los Angeles Daily News. “For me it’s a very good neighborhood, apart from the broken windows,”