Arrest, 3 Teen Boys Dead In Hit-And-Run Crash: Temescal Valley

TEMESCAL VALLEY, CA — A Corona man was arrested Monday on suspicion of intentionally ramming his vehicle into another car in the Temescal Valley, causing the vehicle to slam into a tree — killing three teenage boys inside and injuring three other occupants.

Anurag Chandra, 42, was arrested on suspicion murder, according to California Highway Patrol Officer Juan Quintero.

Quintero said Chandra "intentionally rammed" his Infiniti sedan into a Toyota Prius with six young occupants inside, causing the Prius driver to lose control of the car and hit a tree.

Following the crash, Chandra allegedly fled the scene to a nearby house on Mojeska Summit Road, where witnesses followed him and alerted authorities.

CHP officers later determined Chandra was responsible and arrested him at the house at 2:46 a.m.

He was later booked at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside without bail on suspicion of three counts of murder and six counts of assault with a deadly weapon, jail records show. He is scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday at the Riverside Hall of Justice.

The crash was reported at 10:28 p.m. Sunday at Temescal Canyon Road and Trilogy Parkway, according to the Riverside County Fire Department.

Firefighters used the jaws of life to remove three patients from the Prius, fire officials said. One of them was pronounced dead at the scene, fire officials said. Two others died after being taken to a hospital.

Three other people — all believed to be teens or young adults — were in the Prius and were injured, but all are expected to recover, authorities said.

There was no immediate word on what may have prompted Chandra to ram the Prius, but authorities said they were looking into whether there was some sort of previous contact between the parties.

Witnesses are urged to contact the CHP's Accident Investigation Unit at 951-637-8000.

—City News Service contributed to this report.