A devoted cop and a profession legal’s lives collide on suburban road, leaving each useless

Since he was a baby, Isaiah Cordero had needed to be in regulation enforcement.

He thought-about the Border Patrol, then determined as an alternative to affix the Sheriff’s Division. The optimistic, energetic deputy labored in jails in Riverside County, however in the end selected to be out within the streets patrolling and utilized himself to turn into part of the division’s bike unit.

“He gave his all to his job,” stated his ex-girlfriend, Karla Morales.”He liked his co-workers. That’s what saved him going even on his hardest days.”

William Shea McKay, 44, had a protracted and violent legal historical past and was always fleeing from police.

The three-time convicted felon had a historical past of making an attempt to evade police, which in every case led to violent confrontations, court docket data present.

His first strike got here in 1999, when he pleaded responsible to assault with a firearm and spent three years in jail. The second got here in 2005, when he and a co-defendant attacked a sleeping couple of their condominium, assaulting them and stealing $3,700 from a secure.

The third strike got here when he was convicted on Nov. 8, 2021, of false imprisonment, evading a peace officer, legal threats more likely to lead to loss of life or nice bodily damage, and receiving stolen property. Proof included zip ties, duct tape, an ax and gang paraphernalia. McKay represented himself at trial, however absconded earlier than his sentencing. There had been a warrant out for his arrest since October.

On Thursday on a suburban road in Riverside County, Cordero‘s and McKay’s lives collided.

McKay shot and killed Cordero throughout a site visitors cease in Jurupa Valley. McKay then led police on a freeway chase that resulted in a shootout that left him useless.

A detailed pal of Cordero within the bike unit, Kenneth Shinn, was a couple of mile away when he heard the dispatcher make a name for all items to answer the scene.

“I went there to assist and I used to be pulled away by a sergeant and that was most likely for one of the best,” Shinn stated.

He had labored with Cordero within the division’s DUI unit, then each had turn into bike deputies. Thursday morning began like another day: Shinn purchased himself and Cordero an vitality drink at a gasoline station earlier than work, however when he confirmed up he discovered that Cordero had purchased Shinn an vitality drink too.

“All the time pondering of others,” Shinn stated of Cordero. The deputies attended reggae live shows collectively and have been planing a trip to Colorado.

When Morales obtained a cellphone name Thursday evening from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Division, she hoped it was to tell her that her ex-boyfriend Cordero was going to be OK, that he was going to outlive.

Although they’d just lately damaged up, Morales was nonetheless Cordero’s emergency contact, so she had already been knowledgeable by textual content that he had been shot throughout a site visitors cease.

“I bought the decision. I hoped it was an replace that he was going to be fantastic, however it was [the] whole reverse,” stated Morales, crying in an interview with The Instances. “The minute I began courting him … you simply know what you’re getting your self into. You concentrate on what might occur each evening after they depart, and after they come house you’re grateful.

“It’s all the time behind your thoughts.”

Morales was nervous when Cordero joined the bike unit earlier this 12 months.

“He was so completely satisfied to be on the bike unit. I personally didn’t prefer it. You don’t have any backup, something to cowl you if somebody shoots at you. I had spoken to his mother about it, and we each felt the identical manner, however we supported him via it,” she stated. “All of us feared this taking place.”

“There may be an inherent hazard. … It might have occurred to any of us,” Shinn stated.

Cordero was conducting a site visitors cease when McKay pulled out a gun and shot him as he approached, stated Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco. The rationale for the site visitors cease was not instantly clear.

McKay then led deputies on a large freeway chase, as about 30 police automobiles adopted him south on the 15 Freeway to Norco.

After working over a spike strip arrange by regulation enforcement, McKay’s automobile started to smoke and shortly grew to become disabled. McKay shot at officers pursuing him, who returned hearth and killed him, Bianco stated.

“I’m indignant. I really feel like I’m extra indignant than unhappy. He took every little thing from this household,” stated Morales, who has been in touch with Cordero’s mom for the reason that killing.

Cordero’s mom declined to remark about her son, crying when she answered a name from a reporter Friday morning.

“We’re taking time to grieve as a household. And we’re not taking any questions presently,” a Cordero member of the family stated.

It was not McKay’s first police chase. He had led police on a high-speed chase in 1999, driving 90 mph on floor streets, forcing Caltrans employees to dive out of the way in which as he sped via a piece zone, in keeping with court docket paperwork. When his automobile was disabled, he bought out with a gun and waved it within the air menacingly at officers earlier than lastly surrendering.

He did all of it once more in 2021, fleeing after being stopped for driving a stolen car with a co-defendant, court docket data present. The 2 sped off, evading police within the desert for 20 miles, then took off on foot armed with knives after their automobile was disabled. McKay’s co-defendant stabbed a police Ok-9 throughout that pursuit.

“At no time within the defendant’s grownup life has he led a sustained crime-free existence,” wrote prosecutor Tess Ponce in a sentencing memorandum in April that detailed McKay’s previous legal historical past.

McKay’s legal historical past dated to the Nineties and included kidnapping, theft and a number of assaults with lethal weapons, in keeping with the memorandum.

His violent historical past ought to have saved him in jail, Bianco stated. He was convicted of his third strike in November 2021, however was launched after a choose lowered his bail within the case, in keeping with Bianco.

McKay and two different co-defendants in that case have been accused of holding one in all his acquaintances captive between March 23 and March 27, in keeping with court docket data and the sentencing memorandum filed by San Bernardino County prosecutors in April 2021. The girl had been house-sitting for McKay whereas he was in custody on one other case, in keeping with prosecutors. When she left the home for a couple of hours, the residence was burglarized.

After the lady helped bail McKay out of jail, he requested her to return over to discuss the housebreaking, in keeping with prosecutors.

“Defendant punched sufferer a number of occasions within the face, advised her he was going to kill her and her mom,” prosecutors wrote.

McKay then duct-taped the lady’s wrists and ankles and held her on the home for days.

He and his co-defendants repeatedly assaulted the sufferer, who managed days later to loosen her restraints, escape and name police on March 27, in keeping with prosecutors.

McKay’s bail within the case was initially set at $950,000 in June 2021, court docket data present. After the verdicts, together with his acquittal on kidnapping fees, Choose Cara D. Hutson diminished his bail to $500,000.

On Nov. 8, 2021 — the day Hutson reached her verdict — the file notes {that a} “confidential doc” had been filed in federal court docket: an indictment. There is no such thing as a file of McKay being charged in public federal court docket databases. It’s unclear whether or not he was the topic of a sealed indictment.

McKay postponed his sentencing and posted the $500,000 bond via a Riverside bail company in March of this 12 months, court docket data present.

McKay was additionally dealing with fees of possessing a firearm as a felon, although the case was later dropped, data present.

On Dec. 16, 2020, Cpl. Serbando Saenz of the San Bernardino Police Division noticed a maroon Ford Flex flip on the intersection of H Road and Baseline Street with out signaling.

Saenz testified that when he pulled over the SUV, he noticed McKay stoop over within the driver’s seat, as if he have been reaching for the floorboard.

Inside a bag on the driving force’s aspect floorboard was a .22-caliber revolver loaded with six rounds, Saenz testified. McKay was additionally armed with two knives, one tucked in a sheath and one other in his pocket, Saenz stated.

Two passengers in McKay’s automobile have been discovered to be carrying methamphetamine and pipes.

McKay was charged with possessing the revolver as a felon, however the district legal professional’s workplace dropped the cost the identical day he was discovered responsible in his different case of false imprisonment, making legal threats, evading police and receiving stolen property, data present.

“I’m indignant that choose let him go,” Morales stated. “I’m indignant that criminals appear to have extra rights [than victims]. I’m simply indignant.”