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California Man Live-Streamed Suicide After Alleged Axe Attack On Girlfriend
Angel Hernandez Grado live-streamed a tense police chase to tens of thousands of Instagram followers after allegedly holding a woman at his home for days.
A California father who allegedly held his girlfriend captive for two days last week later live-streamed his death after a lengthy vehicle pursuit with authorities.
Angel Hernandez Grado, 28, reportedly shot himself in the head while driving on Interstate 5 near Camp Pendleton as police closed in during the early hours of May 26, according to the San Diego Tribune.
Police had responded to reports of an ongoing domestic violence situation at an apartment in the San Diego neighborhood of City Heights, the newspaper reported. When authorities arrived, a naked woman made contact with investigators outside the home and claimed her boyfriend had attempted to strangle her; neighbors had reportedly called 911.
The 25-year-old said her partner tied her up for two days in his apartment, sexually assaulted her, and clubbed her with an axe. Her boyfriend, identified as Grado, threatened to kill her if she left the apartment, according to police. She managed to escape the apartment, then tipped off neighbors after Grado had left; he wasn’t at the property when police arrived.
Grado’s white BMW X5 SUV was later spotted on Interstate 15 around 1:30 a.m. For several hours, San Diego Police and state highway patrol units tailed Grado, who stopped and started driving again repeatedly during a series of failed police negotiation attempts.
Grado told authorities over the telephone that he was armed.
Eventually, spike strips punctured his tires on Interstate 5 near San Onofre State Beach. After roughly an hour-long standoff, Grado sped off again towards San Clemente, then ultimately turned around and drove south. Around 3 a.m., California Highway Patrol began shutting down traffic on Interstate 5.
An Orange County SWAT team was later dispatched to help contain the suspect’s vehicle with armored vehicles, according to Lt. Carmelin Rivera, as the San Diego Tribune reported. The armored vehicles cornered the suspect around 6:15 a.m. Aerial footage showed about three dozen police vehicles, as well as two armored vehicles, surrounding the SUV, KABC reported.
Grado, who refused to surrender, ultimately shot himself in the head in the stand-off with authorities. He was later transported to an Orange County hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Prior to his death, the car enthusiast live-streamed a video of the chase. In the now-removed video, an emotional Grado can be seen waving a gun around near his face while speaking on the phone while he is driving.
Grado, who went by the Instagram handle s2k_wya, had roughly 60,000 followers on the platform. His final post, uploaded the day of his death, showed him holding his 5-month-old son in front of his BMW.
“Words can’t express how much I love my son, he is my world, he’s so perfect and handsome,” Grado wrote in a separate post from May 20.
The victim found at the apartment was hospitalized for her injuries with a pair of broken ribs, bruises “all over her body,” and swelling to her face, according to domestic violence unit detectives. She was not identified by authorities.
The San Diego Police Department didn’t immediately respond to Oxygen.com's request for information about the investigation on Wednesday.
