Police confirmed Thursday that the youngster from Southern California who was murdered this week in a gunfight with law officers was present when her father fatally shot her mother the day before.
According to Fontana police, Savannah Graziano, 15, was in the back of her father's pickup vehicle when he fatally shot Tracy Martinez on Monday. She remained motionless as her mother yelled, according to witnesses and two recordings, one from a bystander and the other from a doorbell.
In a phone interview on Thursday, Sgt. Christian Surgent stated, "She's just sitting in the backseat."
Authorities had earlier claimed that the teenager was absent when her mother was killed and that her father, Anthony Graziano, later kidnapped her. But according to police, the two recordings they acquired on Wednesday showed her inside the truck between 30 and 60 seconds before the shooting started.
According to Surgent, witnesses did not see Savannah exit the car as Martinez tried to flee and Graziano, her estranged husband, rushed out with a revolver.
Martinez was shot many times by Graziano, 45, who also turned and opened fire on a passing car. Nobody else suffered harm.
Martinez was able to recognize Graziano as her killer before she passed away, according to Surgent, but she never mentioned her daughter being present. Both videos did not capture the shooting.
A day later, around 35 miles (56.33 kilometers) north of the murder scene, Savannah and her father were both shot and murdered following a protracted pursuit along a desert freeway east of Los Angeles in Hesperia. Graziano's pickup truck, which became inoperable after veering off the road, fired rifle bullets at the pursuing police officers. Authorities said that the shooter shot multiple times through the glass of a patrol car before disabling a second oncoming vehicle.
While Savannah, who was dressed in protective gear and a helmet for combat, was fatally shot as she sprinted toward deputies amid a hail of gunfire, Graziano died inside the truck. Authorities are looking into whether her father, deputies, or both shot her.
According to a state law mandating the department to conduct investigations into police shootings that result in the deaths of unarmed citizens, the California Department of Justice is looking into the teen's death. Detectives in Fontana are still searching for an explanation for the killing.
Investigators also investigated Graziano's storage unit and the family's Fontana home, which he and his daughter had left weeks before. They discovered many AR-15-style weapons, handguns, thousands of rounds of ammo, smoke grenades, and other tactical equipment inside the storage pod, according to Surgent.
Graziano legitimately owned the firearms and was not on probation or parole. Investigators learned from Savannah's younger brother that the siblings were raised around firearms.
Authorities have claimed to have police footage of the gunfire on the motorway, but neither they nor the two films of Savannah in the pickup truck just before her mother was slain have been made public.
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