Coroner IDs 3 Teen Boys Killed In Crash: Southwest RivCo

TEMESCAL VALLEY, CA — The coroner's office has identified the three 16-year-old boys killed Sunday in what officials said was a hit-and-run crash caused by a Corona man who was eventually tracked down by police and arrested.

Killed in the Temescal Valley crash were Jacob Ivascu of Riverside, Daniel Hawkins of Corona, and Drake Ruiz of Corona.

Ivascu died at the crash scene; Hawkins and Ruiz died at Inland Valley Medical Center in Wildomar 75 minutes after the crash.

Three other young people who were in the car with the boys were injured in the crash; all are expected to recover, according to Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department.

Ruiz, who turned 16 on New Year's Eve, played football at Centennial High School in Corona, according to a GoFundMe page set up for his family. The page has raised more than $15,000 as of Tuesday morning. Information on the other boys who died in the crash will be posted as it becomes available.

Almost 100 people filled a church in Corona Monday night for prayer service in memory of the boys.

Ruiz's mother told reporters the teens, who were on their way to a sleepover to celebrate Ivascu's birthday, tried to play a "ding-dong-ditch" prank — ringing a doorbell and quickly driving away — at a friend's home, but Anurag Chandra answered the door, got into his Infiniti sedan and chased the teens.

"The boys were playing ding-dong-ditch at a house they thought was ... somebody their age, but it turned out to be that angry man," Debbie Ruiz said.

She said when Chandra began chasing them, "they fled for their lives basically."

"They were scared to death, tried to get away several times," she said. "He rammed them, ran them off the road."

Chandra, 42, was arrested Monday on suspicion of intentionally ramming his car into the teens' Toyota Prius, causing it to slam into 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.

Firefighters used the jaws of life to remove three patients from the Prius, fire officials said.

There was no official word on what may have prompted Chandra to ram the Prius.

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

—City News Service contributed to this report.