Public Safety
La Quinta Shooter Identified and Detained
[bc_video video_id="5834651974001″ account_id="5728959025001″ player_id="Hkbio1usDM" embed="in-page" padding_top="56%" autoplay="" min_width="0px" max_width="640px" width="100%" height="100%"] A man was killed and a woman was injured in the La Quinta Cove neighborhood Thursday, and the suspect, now identified as 56-year-old Stacy Rowan, led authorities on a freeway pursuit that ended in Ontario, where he shot himself. Rowan told KMIR he and his 91-year-old mother were the victims of mistreatment by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department when RSO responded to a family disturbance in July. That disturbance was a precursor for what happened Thursday. On July 30th, La Quinta police responded to a family disturbance at a home owned by Rowan. During the investigation, officers found several illegally possessed firearms and materials consistent with explosives. Rowan was then arrested and booked at Indio jail on weapons charges. A little less than a month after the arrest, Rowan contacted KMIR about officers, allegedly, trashing the rooms in his house and confiscating his property. Outraged, he wanted KMIR to investigate, considering his 91-year-old mother lived there. "Apparently, his sister and her husband have been trying to get the mother in to assisted living for quite some time and last month they had been there and the police arrived as well," neighbor Lynne Barry, said. "There was a disturbance." In a call to KMIR, Rowan also said his sister was the one who contacted the sheriff’s department and had it out for him but it turns out, he may have had it out for her. Rowan’s home is the same one that went up in flames Thursday after a shooting and neighbors claim it was Rowan’s sister in the front yard with gunshot wounds. "I didn’t hear gunshots, but I did hear the poor lady screaming," Barry said. The husband of Rowan’s sister is thought to be the other shooting victim. "I believe it was Stacy’s sister and her husband that were apparently doing a welfare check." Barry and several other neighbors confirmed Stacy Rowan is the man who lived at the scene of the shooting with his elderly mother. It is not confirmed whether or not the the weapons used in the shooting were the ones previously confiscated during the first investigation. The victims of the shooting have not yet been identified. Rowan will be booked into a Riverside County Jail for homicide after his self-inflicted injury improves, according to the sheriff’s department.
By: NBC Palm Springs
September 13, 2018