Two law enforcement agencies missed obvious red flags when they recruited Austin Lee Edwards in 2022 to kidnap a teenage girl he “catfished,” murder three of her family members, and kill three of her family members. He allowed a house to be set on fire behind his police uniform. According to a $50 million federal lawsuit.
In a 2016 lawsuit, Edwards’ gun rights were revoked after he became mentally unstable and threatened to cut himself and kill his father, according to the lawsuit.
The court order was overlooked in a background check by Virginia State Police and the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, and police allegedly authorized Mr. Edwards’ employment without calling his references, including his father.
“Had VSP or WCSO conducted a background check on Edwards, neither would have hired him,” the complaint states. “A VSP spokesperson acknowledged that the failure to conduct a background check on Edwards was the result of ‘human error,’ and that he was being held under an Emergency Detention Order and a Temporary Detention Order.” “We would not have hired any officer candidates who were in the position.” Detention order. ”
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Austin Lee Edwards, 28, is accused of killing three people in Riverside. He was shot and killed by San Bernardino County deputies. (Riverside Police Station)
Virginia State Police and the Washington County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
Edwards graduated from the Virginia State Police Academy in January 2022, resigned as a state trooper in October 2022, and was hired by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office in mid-November.
Virginia deputy who grabbed a teenage boy, killed his family, then shot himself with a service gun
Before being hired, the 28-year-old posed as a 17-year-old on Instagram and gave a gift to a 15-year-old girl in California, but the girl blocked him after he asked for explicit images.
Ten days after starting his job as a sheriff’s deputy, he crossed state lines and began a gruesome killing spree, pretending to be investigating an “obscene photo exchange.”
Mark Weineck, 69, Shari Weineck, 65, and Brooke Weineck, 38, were found dead inside their home in Riverside, California. (Riverside Police Station)
When the girl returned home, her family found her “lying face down with a bag over her head that was taped to her neck,” according to the complaint reviewed by Fox News Digital.
He grabbed the teenage boy who screamed. According to her complaint, the man wore a badge on his belt and pointed a semi-automatic handgun “with a star on it” at her.
She recognized his voice as that of an imaginary 17-year-old on the phone. He set their house on fire and forced her into her car.
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“Mr. Edwards told RKW (the teenage victim) that he was a police officer and that his background needed to be better,” the complaint states. She asked why he killed his family.
“He told her that if he did not kill her, he would ‘report’ her and that she would not have time to flee California and return to Virginia,” according to the federal civil lawsuit.
Read the full lawsuit
Firefighters and police officers who responded to the burning home found the body and tracked Edwards down.
During a high-speed police chase, the two men exchanged gunfire and Edwards doused the boy with gasoline, before the car stalled on rocks under a bridge.
He ordered her to get out of the car and shot himself. She the girl survived.
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Sheriff Blake Andis of the sheriff’s office is named in the federal civil lawsuit filed on February 2 in federal court in Virginia. Michael Carey, administrator of the estate of William Smarr and Edwards.
According to the complaint, giving Edwards a job with the sheriff’s office gave him a badge and a gun that he otherwise wouldn’t have been able to obtain, allowing him to carry out his heinous acts. That’s what it means.
“It is shocking and unacceptable that WCSO failed to properly investigate an individual who used state power as a cover. Without a badge, a gun, and this cloak of authority, Edwards would commit such heinous acts. That would not have been possible,” the plaintiffs said. attorney Scott Perry told WTOP.com.
“This family has been brutally torn apart and RKW (the teenage victim) must live with the reality of that horrific day. I hope it never happens again.”
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The complaint was filed on behalf of Michelle Brandin, the surviving daughter of Mark and Shari Wynecke. A second surviving minor girl, identified in court documents as “BW,” is also named as a plaintiff.
