EUREKA, Calif. — A young homeless man and a 16-year-old girl were arrested Monday on suspicion of shooting two fellow transients, one fatally, with a crossbow off a coastal Northern California highway, authorities said.
Phoenix Triton King, 20, and the teen, whose name was not released because she is a minor, were found around the Friends of the Dunes nature center in Arcata after an intense manhunt.
Witnesses who saw the pair called police, and they surrendered after being spotted by a California Highway Patrol helicopter, the Humboldt County sheriff’s office said in a statement. They were not armed when they were taken into custody.
Authorities had been searching for the pair after two men were attacked off state Highway 255 on Sunday.
Deputies responding to calls of an injured man on the shoulder of the road found a 41-year-old with an arrow in his hip and grazing wounds to his scalp and shin, sheriff’s Lt. Dave Morey said. He was treated at a hospital and released.
The second victim, a 44-year-old man, was found dead nearby with a single arrow fired at his face at close range, Morey said. Neither victim has been identified.
A witness tried to detain the attackers, but they fled into a heavily wooded area, Morey said.
The roughly quarter-mile-wide peninsula where the victims were found is flanked by the Pacific Ocean and a bay, and it’s home to numerous homeless encampments, Morey said.
The victims had been living there for several months. The suspects were apparently new to the area and had a crude encampment.
Investigators believed the suspects targeted the victims because they believed the men had stolen from them, Morey said.
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