Attacker Urged Deputies to Shoot Him, Authorities Say

The man who killed his girlfriend’s mother with a pair of butcher knives in Chino Hills over the weekend urged deputies to “shoot me, kill me, shoot me in the head,” authorities said Monday.

Sheriff’s deputies fatally shot Kayne Michael Reodica, 19, early Sunday at the Peyton Drive apartment where deputies had witnessed him repeatedly stabbing Deborah Anne Robinson, 49, said San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Sgt. Gerrit C. Tessalaar.

Reodica died at the apartment and Robinson died of her wounds later at Chino Valley Medical Center, Tessalaar said. Robinson’s daughter, a minor who was dating Reodica, was found hiding in a locked bathroom, he said. The sergeant declined to identify the girl or to elaborate on her relationship with Reodica.

Investigators don’t know what motivated Reodica to attack Robinson but Robinson’s daughter told investigators that he had been acting strangely for the last few months and might have been abusing drugs.

The coroner’s office will begin today to conduct an autopsy and toxicology tests to determine whether Reodica was under the influence of any drugs during the attack.

Deputies responded to a call at 4:25 a.m. Sunday from Robinson’s daughter, who said Reodica was acting strangely. As deputies headed for Robinson’s apartment in the 13400 block of Peyton Drive, sheriff’s dispatchers received another call from the daughter, saying Reodica had armed himself with a pair of knives, Tessalaar said.

When deputies arrived at the apartment, they looked through a kitchen window and saw Reodica attacking Robinson with a pair of butcher knives, Tessalaar said. One deputy broke the window with a baton and ordered Reodica to stop. When Reodica continued the attack, a deputy fired at him, prompting Reodica to flee to another room, Tessalaar said.

Two deputies rushed to Robinson’s side while two others pursued Reodica, whom they found hiding in a back bedroom.

Tessalaar said the two deputies who confronted Reodica repeatedly urged him to drop the knives.

“They told him at least 20 times to drop the knives,” he said.

Instead, Tessalaar said Reodica brandished the knives while taking what appeared to be a martial-arts position.

The deputies doused Reodica with pepper spray but he still refused to drop the knives, Tessalaar said. Instead, Reodica told the deputies to shoot, saying “shoot me, kill me, shoot me in the head,” he said.

The deputies, who had cornered Reodica in a small room, believed that they were in danger and fired, Tessalaar said.

He declined to say how many times Reodica was struck by gunfire.

Tessalaar said he suspects that Reodica had been abusing drugs, perhaps methamphetamines.

Reodica was unemployed and had no permanent address, although he had been recently staying with the Robinson family, Tessalaar said.

Robert Shaw, the county’s lead supervising deputy coroner, said it will take between two and six weeks to get the autopsy and toxicology results for Reodica.

Shaw said the violent behavior exhibited by Reodica after deputies doused him with pepper spray is usually associated with the use of phencyclidine hydrochloride, or PCP, a hallucinogenic drug.

But Shaw said he has heard of cases in which suspects exhibit the same behavior under the influence of methamphetamines.

An autopsy for Robinson is scheduled to begin today but Shaw expects that the autopsy will show that she died from numerous stab wounds to the torso from “very large, kitchen-type butcher knives.”