“I heard the skid and then everything happened so fast. I don’t know what happened, where he was, or how he got hit at all.”
Officials with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office and Simi Valley Police Department said Austin Eis traveled over 30 miles on Tuesday to three locations, leaving behind death and destruction.
According to Cmdr. Ritchie Lew, a spokesperson for the Simi Valley police, Eis began at a Simi Valley Walmart, where he allegedly pepper-sprayed a male employee without provocation, then stabbed him.
The suspect then assaulted a female employee and attempted to drag her away. When other employees tried to stop him, the attacker lunged at them with a knife and then fled the store.
Both Walmart employees were taken to the hospital. The female victim has been released but the man had multiple stab wounds and remains hospitalized in stable condition.
Approximately 40 minutes later, the suspect went to his family home and threatened multiple people with a knife and brandished a firearm, according to Ventura County sheriff’s spokesperson Deputy Wendell Campbell.
20 minutes later, Eis allegedly drove to a bus stop near Westlake High School in Thousand Oaks, his alma mater, and intentionally plowed into a group of teens.
Wesley Welling, 15, was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Another 15-year-old boy and two girls, 14 and 16, were also taken to a hospital. Two have been released, but the third’s condition is not yet known.
Law enforcement officials have not yet determined a motive for the crimes but Campbell said evidence at the scene of the crash and witness statements led authorities to believe the crash was intentional.
Eis, who graduated from the school in 2017, has been booked on seven felony counts, including murder and attempted murder. Campbell noted that Eis has no known criminal history.
A GoFundMe page has been created to help with the teen’s funeral costs.
On Wednesday afternoon, Wesley’s two siblings, Hannah and Cody, visited a makeshift memorial in front of Westlake High School. Hannah was with Wesley and the other teens at the time of the crash just after 3:30 pm Tuesday but was not hit.
Her mother told reporters, “By some miracle, my daughter was standing right next to him, and it could have been both of them.”
Hannah told the Los Angeles Times that she and her brother were waiting for the bus together, but she was farther away from the seating area. “I heard the skid and then everything happened so fast. I don’t know what happened, where he was, or how he got hit at all.”
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