A grandfather and Army veteran was killed during a carjacking in California, just hours before he was supposed to meet his family for dinner.
According to a press release from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, 79-year-old Corona resident James Norman was the victim of an attempted robbery of his SUV on Monday, May 12.
According to authorities, deputies from the Norco Sheriff’s Station were dispatched around 12:30 p.m. local time to a business on Hidden Valley Parkway, where they spoke with witnesses and reviewed video surveillance footage of the incident.
Corona Police Department officers eventually located a man named Norman “east of the initial incident.” They reported that he was “suffering from traumatic injuries consistent with being ejected from a vehicle.”
According to KABC-TV and KTLA, Norman was vacuuming the back of his Chevrolet Trailblazer when a suspect took the driver’s seat and drove away, leaving him dangling from the SUV’s back door.
According to police, Norman was dragged about a half-mile up the road before being ejected from the vehicle.
Norman was found and “transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced deceased,” according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department did not immediately return PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Norman was found by police and transported to the hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. According to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, investigators determined that he died as a result of injuries sustained during the carjacking.
After the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office Central Homicide Unit took over the investigation, they were able to locate Norman’s SUV in Riverside and detain a man identified as 29-year-old Ryan Hewitt, who was discovered near the intersection of Magnolia Avenue and Tyler Street.
Following further investigation, the sheriff’s office stated that Hewitt, a Corona resident, was “arrested and booked into the Robert Presley Detention Center for carjacking and murder.”
Although the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department believes no other suspects are involved in the incident, they have stated that the investigation is “active and ongoing.”
Norman’s daughter, Nicole Lauritsen, told KABC-TV that her father, an Army veteran, had planned to meet her and her husband for dinner that night.
She stated that her father “probably” stopped at an ARCO station “to clean his car.” She continued: “he was probably waiting for us to call him and say, ‘Hey dad, we’re on our way now and we’re going to come get you.'”
“He didn’t have his hearing aids in, so I’m guessing he didn’t hear with the vacuum on, and all of a sudden, the car is just backing up,” Lauritsen told the newspaper. “He was too old and frail to get out before the door slammed on him.”
Lauritsen told the outlet that she received a call from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department informing her that her father had “been in an accident,” and that they needed her assistance in locating his phone.
She then explained that she had placed an AirTag in the vehicle to keep an eye on her father, which helped the police locate the SUV and apprehend the suspect.
“I just hope he went quickly and I’m grateful for the people — and I hope to meet them — that surrounded him and protected his body so he wasn’t just out in the middle of the road,” Lauritsen told KABC-TV on Tuesday.
In a GoFundMe created by Norman’s family to raise funds for his funeral, he was described as someone who “lived a modest, basic life, but also an adventurous life.” His family also said, “He will be remembered for his resilience, his love of life, and his deep commitment to his family.”
