A San Diego County man accused of assaulting a sheriff’s deputy and trying to grab his gun during a confrontation in Corona, culminating in the defendant’s girlfriend being fatally shot, was charged Thursday with murder and other offenses.
Eric John Nourani, 32, was arrested in the predawn hours Tuesday after the deadly deputy-involved shooting in the 1000 block of West Sixth Street, near Lincoln Avenue.
Along with murder, Nourani is charged with attempted murder, mayhem, resisting arrest and obstructing a law enforcement officer resulting in great bodily injury.
The defendant, who is being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Robert Presley Jail, was slated to make his initial court appearance Thursday afternoon at the Riverside Hall of Justice.
The criminal complaint against Nourani alleges he was responsible for the death of Jennifer Rose Dobbins. The allegation stems from California’s felony murder rule, under which a party can be charged with causing a death when the fatality occurred as a result of an attack on a peace officer, even though the party did not directly inflict the wounds.
The murder rule was legislatively modified in 2018, making it harder to charge a person for a collateral death, but it still applies when a peace officer is the named victim of an attack.
According to sheriff’s officials, shortly after 1 a.m. Tuesday, a deputy assigned to the Lake Mathews station, whose personnel are deployed to the unincorporated community of Coronita, a tiny hamlet within Corona, was traveling the Sixth Street corridor when he spotted “multiple subjects” and stopped to investigate what they were doing.
“The subjects took off running, and the deputy pursued them on foot,” a sheriff’s statement said. “When the deputy turned the corner of a building, (Nourani) lunged at him, and a fight ensued.”
Sheriff’s officials alleged while the deputy, identified in court documents only as “J.B.,” struggled with the defendant, Dobbins jumped into the fray and began “assaulting the deputy, and a deputy-involved shooting occurred.”
“The female suspect was struck by gunfire,” according to the statement. “The deputy continued to fight off (Nourani), who was attempting to take his firearm until good Samaritans arrived and assisted in detaining him.”
First responders attempted life-saving measures on Dobbins, who was taken to a regional trauma center, where she was pronounced dead on arrival, authorities said.
J.B. suffered unspecified moderate injuries that required medical attention, while Nourani was treated for minor injuries prior to being booked into the downtown Riverside jail.
The deputy was placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation, which involves both the California Department of Justice and the sheriff’s Force Investigations Detail, whose staff work in concert with the District Attorney’s Office.
Nourani has no documented prior criminal history in Riverside County.