HESPERIA – (INT) – The California Department of Justice (DOJ) has assumed an investigation into the fatal police shooting of a 15-year-old girl in Hesperia. It comes after the Southern California Newspaper Group obtained and released a video of the incident at the side of the I-15.

Savannah Graziano, dressed in military fatigues, had allegedly been kidnapped by her father near her school in Fontana one morning in September 2022.

The two had moved out of the family’s home a few weeks before what was described as an incident of domestic violence. Anthony Graziano ambushed and killed his wife, Tracy, near their daughter’s Fontana school. The father and daughter drove into the High Desert. Both died in a gun battle with police the next day at the side of Interstate 15. Savannah was hit by sheriff’s deputies cross-fire.

San Bernardino County Sheriff-Coroner Shannon Dicus said, at the time, the girl was a ‘participant’ in the events surrounding her death although she was not armed.

Story Date: April 9, 2024