What to Know
- A 68-year-old woman visiting Southern California from New Zealand was hit and killed by a getaway car in a robbery attempt at Fashion Island in Newport Beach.
- The crime led to a police chase in Orange and Los Angeles counties that end with three suspects in custody.
- Witness described a chaotic scene with one of the suspects firing a handgun during the attempted robbery.
A woman visiting Southern California from New Zealand was identified as the victim killed in an attempted robbery Tuesday at a Newport Beach shopping mall.
Patricia McKay, 68, was killed when she was struck and killed by the suspects’ getaway car as they left the scene of the crime at Fashion Island in the area of Santa Rosa Drive and Newport Center Drive.
Witnesses told police that two men, one armed with a gun, tried to rob two people walking outside the mall. During the robbery attempt, the woman was dragged into the road and struck by a car with a third suspect behind the wheel, police said.
McKay, who was with her husband, died at the scene.
“It was a tragic loss,” said Sgt. Steven Oberon, of the Newport Beach Police Department.
The woman’s husband was not injured.
One of the men fired a handgun three times during the robbery, but no one was struck by gunfire, police said.
A chase ensued after the three men in the white sedan failed to yield for a traffic stop. One suspect got out of the car in Cypress, but was eventually taken into custody. The other two men were arrested after they abandoned the car in Los Angeles County.
The suspects were identified as Leroyernest Joseph McCrary, 26, of Compton; Jaden Cunningham, 18, of Lancaster; and Malachi Eddward Darnell, 18, of Los Angeles.
‘To hell with these guys,” Mayor Will O’Neil of Newport Beach said. “They came into our city, knowing that they were going to commit crime, and a woman is dead today because of it.”
