The Riverside County Coroner’s Office Saturday publicly identified a North Hollywood murder suspect who led authorities on a chase from Hesperia to Corona in a stolen Toyota Tacoma on Thursday before fatally shooting himself at the end of the pursuit.
Christopher Spotz, 33, is suspected of killing his girlfriend Adea Shabani, a 25-year-old aspiring model and actress from Macedonia, who went missing in Hollywood last month.
At about 8:45 p.m. Thursday, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department advised the California Highway Patrol they were in pursuit of the Tacoma as it traveled south on Interstate 15 in Hesperia, said CHP Public Information Officer Dan Olivas. Authorities discovered the vehicle had possibly been used in a homicide that had occurred in Los Angeles County, Olivas said.
The CHP assumed control of the pursuit on Interstate 15 at Limonite Avenue. Two spike strips were deployed but the driver was able to continue evading and transitioned to the westbound Riverside (91) Freeway. The suspect exited the freeway at Green River Road and came to a stop on Rio Vista Street, south of the 91 Freeway, Olivas said.
As officers attempted a felony traffic stop, the driver shot himself with a handgun and died at the scene, Olivas said.
Shabani had last been seen about 11 a.m. on Feb. 23, near the 1700 block of Wilcox Avenue, between Hollywood Boulevard and Franklin Avenue, not far from her home, police said.
She had been in Los Angeles less than two years, according to her friends. Her family hired a private investigator to help find her and offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to her whereabouts.
Spotz had acted in various short films throughout the past three years and had a minor role in a forthcoming web series called “The Shoaks,” according to IMDB.com.
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