Colton police detectives are reopening a cold case involving single mother Gabriela Escobar, who went missing on April 15, 1998 at the age of 21.

Kimberly Cheng reports for the KTLA 5 News at 11 on July 23, 2014.

A 29-year-old middle school teacher in Colton was arrested Tuesday morning after being spotted by a campus security officer allegedly smoking heroin near the school, police said.

Kyle MacKenzie was found in possession of the drug and admitted to smoking it to police officers responding to Jehue Middle School, according to a Colton Police Department news release.

A school resource officer saw MacKenzie allegedly “smoking some type of substance” near campus and called the Colton Police Department about 9:30 a.m., the release stated.

A teacher at the school, Kyle MacKenzie was arrested on suspicion of felony possession of a controlled substance.

He was being held at West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga on $25,000 bail and was due in court Thursday, county inmate records showed.

Jehue Middle School in Colton is run by Rialto Unified School District.

Investigators confirmed Thursday a pair of fatal shootings that took place within about 30 minutes in Colton and Moreno Valley were linked and said the 38-year-old suspected killer was arrested in San Diego after briefly taking a restaurant employee hostage.

Police tape is seen at the scene of a fatal shooting in Colton on Dec. 23, 2015. (Credit: Newspro News HD)

Police initially responded to a shots fired call just after 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in the 1200 block of East Washington Street, a news release from the Colton Police Department stated.

Officers found the victim, a 37-year-old woman, suffering from gunshot wounds to her upper body behind a gas station located at the address.

The woman was taken to Loma Linda University Medical Center, where she died from her injuries.

The shooter fled the scene after acquiring another vehicle, according to the Police Department.

Then, at 5:53 p.m., officers in Moreno Valley were called to the 23000 block of Lake Valley Drive, where they found a man and woman in the street with gunshot wounds. The woman was hospitalized but the man was pronounced dead on scene, according to a news release from the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.

The relationship between the shooter and the victims was unknown.

A Riverside County homicide suspect surrenders with a restaurant worker he briefly held hostage in San Diego on Dec. 24, 2015. (Credit: SDNV.tv)

The suspected gunman was identified in the sheriffs' news release as 43-year-old Jason Barton of Moreno Valley. A later release from the Colton Police Department, however, stated he was actually 38.

Barton was arrested in San Diego, according to the release.

He was taken into custody at a taco restaurant in the city's Mission Hills area after a brief standoff with police, KTLA sister station KSWB in San Diego reported

Barton grabbed an employee by the neck and held the worker at gunpoint along with a customer, the station said. When San Diego police arrived, he released the employee and walked backwards toward officers, as ordered, video from the scene showed.

The man surrendered to officers, who later learned he was wanted in connection with stolen car that was tied to the Colton and Moreno Valley homicide investigations, according to KSWB.

The San Diego Police Department would not confirm details to KTLA, referring inquiries to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, which described the incident as Barton having "sought refuge in a restaurant and an employee called police."

Homicide investigators from the Colton Police Department and Riverside County Sheriff's Department went to San Diego.

Barton was taken by Colton police to West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, where he was being booked on suspicion of murder, according to the Police Department. He also faced a parole violation charge.

KTLA's Geoff Peters contributed to this report. 

Colton resident Megan Clement said she took this photo of ice that fell from the sky onto her home on March 21, 2016.

Colton resident Megan Clement was in her townhouse doing some cleaning when she heard the loud bangs. She thought a tree might have fallen on the home.

Then she went outside and found them: eight to 10 large chunks of ice.

They were everywhere — on the roof, covering the walkway and in the bushes.

The unusual incident occurred in the 1200 block of Mojave Drive about 10 a.m. Monday — when the sky was clear with no threat of hail or other strange weather.

Clement said she Googled the phenomenon and has some ideas what happened. Large chunks of ice known as megacryometeors can form under certain conditions, but it’s not clear if that’s what occurred.

Meanwhile, Clement is saving those strange ice chunks in her freezer.

KTLA’s Jennifer Thang contributed to this article.

Colton resident Megan Clement said she took this photo of ice that fell from the sky onto her home on March 21, 2016.

Colton resident Megan Clement said she took this photo of ice that fell from the sky onto her home on March 21, 2016.

A 22-year-old Colton man has been arrested for allegedly committing multiple sex crimes against a 15-year-old girl who lived in his neighborhood, authorities announced Friday.

Bill Lawler Jr., 22, is seen in a booking photo. (Credit: San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department)

Bill Lawler Jr. was taken into custody Wednesday afternoon on suspicion of three counts: penetration by foreign object, oral copulation with a person under 16, and unlawful sexual intercourse, according to a statement from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.

An investigation began Feb. 22 when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported to the sheriff’s Internet Crimes Against Children Detail that a Colton man had solicited child pornography from a female minor, the news release said.

Sheriff’s detectives subsequently identified the teenage girl and named Lawler as the suspect. The alleged victim and the man knew each other as residents of the same neighborhood, the statement said.

Investigators from the Sheriff’s Department contacted the 15-year-old, “who disclosed sexual abuse and the solicitation of child pornography by Lawler,” according to the news release. The alleged abuse occurred between Thanksgiving Day in 2015 and March 2016.

Lawler was arrested on a warrant for sex offenses against a child and was being held on $500,000 bail. He was scheduled to be arraigned in Superior Court on Friday.

Anyone with information about the case was asked to call Detective John Everman or Detective Jennifer Burkhart of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department at 909-387-3615.

Officials on Tuesday identified the driver who led police on a short pursuit in San Bernardino and then crashed into another vehicle, killing himself and an innocent father of two.

Two people were killed when a driver allegedly ran a red light and crashed into another car in San Bernardino on March 28, 2016. (Credit: KTLA)

The incident began when the driver of a Honda refused to yield to a San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department deputy during an attempted traffic stop near La Cadena Drive and Mount Vernon Avenue in Colton early Monday morning.

The deputy began to pursue the driver, but ended the chase after the person in the Honda began driving erratically, said Lt. Rich Lawhead of the San Bernardino Police Department.

A short time later, after reaching speeds near 100 mph, the Honda ran through a red light and into a tan Mustang near the intersection of Mount Vernon Avenue and Rialto Avenue, Lawhead said.

The driver of the Honda, identified by coroner’s officials as 30-year-old Rudy Javier Vargas, from San Bernardino, was killed in the crash along with one of the two people inside the Mustang.

The man killed in the Mustang was identified by his fiancé as Alex Peyro.

"He was full of life. He loved his community,” Sarah Sillas said of her fiancé.

Officials said Peyro, a father of two, and a coworker were headed to their job Monday morning when the collision occurred.

"He was a good guy. Very talented ... good father ... a good person all the way around," friend Andrew Armendariz said.

The coworker was also injured in the crash, but was expected to survive.

A memorial of flowers was seen at the crash site in honor of Peyro Tuesday morning.

The parents of a 12-year-old boy who died after playing soccer Tuesday during a physical education class at an elementary school in Colton said Wednesday that a school bully stomped on their son’s chest before he lost consciousness.

Dominick Gallegos is seen in a photo provided by family members.

Joel Gallegos said his son Dominick was playing on a field at Ulysses S. Grant Elementary School just before the school day ended when the incident occurred.

School officials told him that Dominick had fallen and lost consciousness after running into another student, Gallegos told KTLA on Wednesday.

Dominick was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Katie Orloff, a spokeswoman for the Colton Joint Unified School District confirmed that a student had died and said a crisis team was at the school Wednesday. She did not provide any details of what had occurred.

"Everybody here is trying to do their best to support each other and work through it as the community that we are." Orloff said.

Family and friends gather to remember Dominick during a vigil on April 12, 2016. (Credit: KTLA)

Detectives were sent to the hospital and ruled out any type of assault or physical injury that may have happened at the school, according to Colton Police Department Officer Todd Smith, the school's resource officer.

Smith said investigators were waiting for a report from the county coroner's office.

However, Dominick’s father talked to his son's friends who witnessed the incident and believes his son was kicked by another student.

A sign for Dominick is seen during a vigil held on April 12, 2016. (Credit: KTLA)

The students told Gallegos that Dominick slipped when he went to pick up a soccer ball and another student, who Gallegos said has a reputation for being a school bully, stomped on his son’s chest twice and Dominick lost consciousness.

"I guess the kid thought he was playing around. He started shaking him to wake up," Gallegos said.

But that's when the bell ending to school day rang and the boy just took off, Gallegos said.

"I don't know where the teachers were," said Gallegos, who felt his son should have been better supervised during the class. "Someone should have been watching those kids."

Gallegos and the boy's mother both said their son had no health problems and recently had a physical.

Mourners comfort each other outside Ulysses S. Grant Elementary School on April 12, 2016, when a sixth-grader died. (Credit: KTLA)

"This kid did it on purpose," said Gallegos.

The father said he asked his son’s friends if Dominick had a problem with the other boy prior to the incident, but the friends said, "No, that's just the way that kid is.”

Gallegos said he wanted to help police with their investigation but they had yet to speak with him.

"He was my only son," Gallegos said, starting to cry.

On Tuesday night, about 100 parents and students had gathered at the school, but no one who spoke to a KTLA reporter was able to say exactly what had happened, only that a student had died early that day.

The district superintendent was present Tuesday evening and said he had no comment and wanted to respect the family's privacy. He said the district would send out a press release Wednesday.

Dominick Gallegos is seen in a photo provided by family members.

A coroner’s autopsy found no evidence of trauma on the body of a 12-year-old boy who died after his parents said he was stomped on by another student at a Colton elementary school.

The San Bernardino County coroner’s office’s finding in the case of Dominick Gallegos was posted online Thursday, when the autopsy was completed.

“Preliminary autopsy findings indicate an enlarged (hypertrophic) heart and evidence of early congestive cardiac failure,” the coroner’s brief statement read.

Gallegos died Tuesday after being taken to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center from Ulysses S. Grant Elementary School in Colton.

Mourners comfort each other outside Ulysses S. Grant Elementary School on April 12, 2016, when a sixth-grader died. (Credit: KTLA)

He collapsed after playing soccer, and the boy’s parents told KTLA their son’s friends reported a boy known for bullying had stomped on the Dominick’s chest.

He was declared dead about an hour after he collapsed, the coroner’s statement indicates.

Police said Wednesday they had ruled out the possibility of an assault but were waiting for the autopsy results.

Hundreds of mourners gathered in Colton on April 13, 2016, to remember Dominick Gallegos. (Credit: KTLA)

The boy’s father, Joel Gallegos, told KTLA that students told him Dominick slipped when he went to pick up a soccer ball and another student stomped on his son’s chest twice and Dominick lost consciousness.

Gallegos and the boy’s mother both said their son had no health problems.

Hundreds of people turned out for a vigil at the school on Wednesday night.

A 24-year-old man was arrested in Colton after authorities found the remains of a missing man buried in a backyard, police said.

Colton police officers were called to a home along North Jantzen Drive about 5:15 p.m. Monday for suspicious circumstances.

A man was found buried in the backyard of this Colton home on July 25, 2016. A small memorial was set up in front of the home. (Credit: KTLA)

Cpl. Ray Mendez told the Press-Enterprise that detectives believe the victim lived alone in the home where his body was found.

During their initial investigation, police believed the missing man might have been the victim of a homicide and a "person of interest" was detained at the scene, officials said.

Detectives eventually found a shallow grave in the victim's backyard and the San Bernardino County Coroner’s Office was called to recover the remains and preserve evidence, officials said.

Flavio Delgadillo was eventually arrested and booked on suspicion of homicide, officials said.

The circumstances behind the death and the motive remain unknown.

The victim has not been identified, but nearby residents told KTLA that the two men were neighbors.

Residents described the victim as a cheerful neighbor who they looked forward to running into on their street or at the grocery store.

“(He was a) Very nice gentleman,” Ruben Castaneda said.

“At times you hear stuff happening, but not like this.” Frank Ornelas, another neighbor said. “This is shocking."

A small memorial was set up for the victim near his home.

A Colton man has been charged with murder after his neighbor’s body was found in a backyard, court records show.

Flavio Delgadillo, 24, was arrested earlier this week when detectives found the remains of Gary Lee Titus in the victim’s own backyard.

Titus had been missing and a concerned family member asked police to respond to his home in the 1600 block of North Jantzen Drive, officials said.

Colton police officials told the Press Enterprise that the victim lived alone in the home.

Detectives found a shallow grave and the San Bernardino County Coroner’s Office was called to recover the remains.

According to the criminal complaint, Delgadillo used a knife to kill Titus.

It is unclear, however, what led to the death or when Titus was killed.

Delgadillo remains in custody on $1 million bail.

A man was fatally shot by police in the parking lot of Washington High School in Colton following a pursuit Monday evening, authorities said.

The incident began around 5:30 p.m. when officers located a stolen vehicle in the area of Harbor Avenue and Illinois Street, according to a news release from the Colton Police Department.

Officers attempted to stop on the car, but the driver failed to yield, prompting police to initiate the chase, the release stated.

The pursuit ended in the high school’s parking lot when the vehicle crashed into a curb in the 900 block of East “C” Street.

Police opened fire at the conclusion of the pursuit, though it was not immediately known what prompted the shooting.

The driver and passenger who were inside the vehicle were both transported to a hospital, where one of them died, according to the release.

Authorities have not identified the deceased person, describing him only as an adult male.

The other person was treated for injuries; his or her condition was not immediately provided.

The high school, which was not in session when the fatal shooting occurred, was closed Tuesday due to a police investigation, the Colton Joint Unified School District tweeted. Earlier, Washington High said on Twitter that the campus would be closed Tuesday because of an after-school incident near the school.

No additional details were released about the shooting, which was being investigated by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.

All westbound lanes of the 10 Freeway were closed on Wednesday after a tractor-trailer hit a beam of the Pepper Avenue overpass, according to California Highway Patrol officials.

The big rig was carrying a forklift when it hit the bridge around 9 a.m., said CHP Officer Brian Alvarez.

A few cars were damaged by falling debris, but no injuries were reported, according to Alvarez.

A SigAlert was issued at 9:14 a.m.

Traffic was rerouted off the freeway, which was backed up to Tippecanoe Avenue, about 5 1/2 miles east of the Pepper Avenue overpass.

The10 Freeway reopened by 1:30 p.m., according to a CHP Inland Division official.

A man was fatally shot Thursday in Colton, police reported.

Officers responded to the 300 block of East Valley Boulevard about 7:44 a.m. to a report of a man down. An adult man was found suffering from a gunshot wound in his upper chest area, the Colton Police Department said in a released statement.

The man, whose name was not immediately released, was taken to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center where he died of his injuries, police said.

No other information was released.

Anyone with information was asked to call the Colton Police Department at 909-370-5000.

Colton police on Tuesday identified a “vehicle of interest” in a recent homicide, saying they believe that someone inside the van may have witnessed the shooting that left a man dead earlier this month.

Amid an ongoing homicide investigation, Colton police released this image of a van being sought as a “vehicle of interest” on May 16, 2017.

The victim was found with a gunshot wound to the upper chest in the 300 block of East Valley Boulevard around 7:45 a.m. on May 4, according to a Colton Police Department news release.

He was transported to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center where he died.

The 36-year-old man’s name has yet to been released by the San Bernardino County coroner’s office.

Authorities have not identified any suspects in the case, but are looking for a vehicle in connection with the incident.

The van is believed to be a 1992 to 1998 Ford Aerostar, green in color, with a brown or tan stripe at the bottom. The vehicle has no hub caps, and a dent between the wheel well and rear bumper on the passenger side is visible.

Police believe that someone inside the van possibly witnessed the shooting.

A surveillance image of the vehicle was released by the department, along with the description.

Anyone with information is asked to call the department’s Detective Division at 909-370-5028.

A man fatally shot a woman he used to date in front of members of her family before turning the weapon on himself in Colton on Thursday night, according to police.

The man confronted the woman in a parking lot in the 1400 block of East Cooley Drive before allegedly opening fire on the victim and shooting himself, the Colton Police Department said in a news release.

Several of the victim’s relatives who were there when the shooting happened and took the 31-year-old Rialto woman away from the scene, police said. They also dialed 911.

The victim was found a short time after that in the 1100 block of Mount Vernon Avenue suffering from a gunshot wound. She was pronounced dead at Arrowhead Regional Hospital.

Authorities have not released her name yet.

Officers responded to a suicide call at the initial location around 8:05 p.m. and located a man with a gunshot wound, according to the release. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Authorities have only identified him as a 39-year-old San Bernardino resident.

Investigators say the two dated in the past, and were recently estranged, according to the release.

The incident is being investigated as a murder-suicide, police said.

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call Colton police Detective Jaeger at 909-370-5028 or 909-370-5000.

Colton police on Monday are searching for a woman with a violent past who allegedly stabbed her two grandchildren, one of them fatally, and her daughter.

The suspect, identified as 43-year-old Nicole Darrington-Clark, was released from state custody in 2010 after stabbing her son and pushing her daughter out of a moving vehicle in 2005, police said.

Nicole Darrington-Clark is seen in a photo distributed by Colton police.

Monday's incident was reported about 9:10 a.m., when dispatchers received a call from a woman saying she had been stabbed by her mother, who had also stabbed her two children, according to Cpl. Ray Mendez of the Colton Police Department.

Officers found the three stabbing victims at an apartment in a complex in the 1400 block of East Santo Antonio Drive.

One of the grandchildren died, while the other two victims were last reported to be in critical condition, according to Mendez. The child who was fatally stabbed was identified only as an 18-month-old girl; police initially said she was 6 months old.

The names of the victims were not provided, but a neighbor said the toddler was named Damani and the older sibling is a 5-year-old named Arleya. The mother, the neighbor said, is named Glorious.

The suspect goes by Nicole Darrington or Nicole Clark, Mendez said.

She pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted murder but the court ruled her insane in the 2005 incident, according to a 2007 San Gabriel Valley Tribune article that reported she was expected to remain in a mental institution.

In the stabbing of her 14-year-old son at an Inglewood motel and for throwing her 10-year-old daughter out of a moving minivan on the 10 Freeway in West Covina, she was found not guilty by reason of insanity, the newspaper reported.

The scene where a fatal stabbing occurred in Colton on June 5, 2017, is shown. (Credit: KTLA)

Police told KTLA on Monday that Darrington-Clark was released in 2010. It's not clear why she was released.

The neighbor who provided the names of the victims recounted Darrington-Clark coming out of the Colton apartment with a bloody knife on Monday morning.

Tim Hill, who lives downstairs from the victims' second-floor apartment, said he heard a scream then saw a woman in her early 20s stumble out of the unit and run down the stairs. The woman was covered in blood and had stab wounds near her eye and on her upper body, Hill said.

"She goes, 'Go, go, get my kids,'" Hill said. "'She's going to kill my babies.'"

Hill said he gave her his cellphone so she could call 911.

Then the victim's mother descended the stairs, bloody knife in hand, Hill said. He pushed the older woman away and she jumped into a car and drove away.

Hill said he went into the apartment and found the younger child face down on the sofa, stab wounds in her back. The older girl was discovered hiding in the closet, the neighbor said.

The youngest victim was declared dead on scene, and the other two victims were all rushed to the hospital with multiple stab wounds, according to a police news release.

Hill had just seen the family at the pool the previous day, with the grandmother watching the older grandchild, he said.

"Everything seemed normal," Hill said. "It's so shocking."

A motive for the stabbing was not immediately known. In the 2005 case, a motive was also not known, but the suspect had a history of mental and emotional problems, a prosecutor told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.

The suspect remains at large, and police are looking for a black 2013 Hyundai Sonata, with a California license plate No. of 7TQL009, according to Mendez.

Darrington-Clark is described as an African-American woman, 5 feet 9 inches tall, about 200 pounds, with short black hair and brown eyes. Anyone who sees the suspect or her car should call 911 and stay away from her, Mendez said.

She should be considered armed and dangerous, police said. Anyone with information about her whereabouts is asked to call Colton police at 909-370-5000.

KTLA's Jennifer Thang contributed to this story. 

A Colton woman who was being sought after allegedly stabbing her two granddaughters, one of them fatally, as well as her daughter was arrested on Tuesday, police said.

Nicole Darrington-Clark is seen in a booking photo released by Colton police on June 6, 2017.

Nicole Darrington-Clark, 43, was taken into custody about 4:15 a.m. by a San Bernardino County sheriff's deputy who had spotted her parked car in the area of Ninth Street and Waterman Avenue behind a closed business, according to a Colton Police Department news release.

The deputy, who had been patrolling the area at the time, called for back-up and contacted the occupant of the vehicle, who was determined to be the suspect in the Colton triple stabbing.

She was then arrested and booked into San Bernardino County jail on suspicion of murder, police said. Her bail has been set at $1 million.

Darrington-Clark is accused of stabbing her three relatives about 9:10 a.m. Monday in an apartment complex along the 1400 block of East Santo Antonio Drive.

The children's mother, Glorious, managed to flee the attack. She went to the unit of another neighbor, Tim Hill, who lives downstairs from the apartment.

"At that time, Glory was hysterical and she just said, 'Hey, can you go get my babies? Go get my babies,'" Hill told KTLA Tuesday. "She thought she went back upstairs to finish off the kids."

Hill immediately went upstairs, where he said he found the toddler face down on a sofa with multiple stab wounds to her back.

The scene where a fatal stabbing occurred in Colton on June 5, 2017, is shown. (Credit: KTLA)

He then called out to the older child, whom he identified as 5-year-old Arleya. The little girl had also been stabbed several times.

"I searched the apartment, I went into the closet and she was in a corner of the closet shaking, petrified," Hill said. He brought the child downstairs, where he was met by paramedics and police.

The 18-month-old, identified only as Damani, died in the attack; the two surviving victims were last reported to be in stable condition and remained hospitalized as of Tuesday morning, police said.

Darrington-Clark fled the scene of the stabbing in a Hyundai Sonata. Police released a photo of a woman, as well as description of the vehicle and a license plate amid an intense search for the suspect.

She eluded capture for nearly a day before she was apprehended the following morning.

Tim Hill, the victim's neighbor, helped stop the attack. (Credit: KTLA)

Darrington-Clark has a violent past, according to court records.

She pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted murder in connection with stabbing her son and pushing her daughter out of a moving vehicle in 2005, but the court ruled her insane, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported in 2007.

At the time, she was expected to remain in a mental institution. However, Darrington-Clark was released in 2010, according to Colton police.

Darrington-Clark had been sent to Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino, her defense attorney, Robert Sheahen, said Tuesday.

It was not immediately clear why she was released. A spokesman for the California Department of State Hospitals said he could not comment on the case due to privacy laws.

A motive for Monday's fatal stabbing was not immediately known; the incident remains under investigation.

KTLA's Melissa Pamer contributed to this article.

A Colton woman accused of fatally stabbing her 1-year-old granddaughter, and injuring a second grandchild and the children’s mother in the attack, has been charged in the case, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said Thursday.

Nicole Darrington-Clark is seen in a booking photo released by Colton police on June 6, 2017.

Nicole Yanick Darrington, 43, faces one count of murder and two counts of attempted murder in connection with Monday’s triple stabbing, according to the felony complaint.

The complaint alleges Darrington used a “deadly and dangerous weapon” — a knife — to stab her 22-year-old daughter, 5-year-old granddaughter and 18-month-old granddaughter.

The toddler was killed, and the other two relatives were seriously wounded when Darrington allegedly stabbed the three about 9:10 a.m. Monday in an apartment complex in the 1400 block of East Santa Antonio Drive, according to the Colton Police Department.

Darrington fled the scene immediately after, and was apprehended in her vehicle early the following morning in the area of Ninth Street and Waterman Avenue, the department said.

After her arrest, Darrington was booked into the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga and was being held on $1 million bail.

Darrington has had previous run-ins with the law, pleading guilty to two counts of attempted murder in connection with stabbing her son and pushing her daughter out of a moving vehicle in 2005, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported in 2007.

She was ruled insane by the court, and, according to her defense attorney, was sent to Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino.

Darrington was expected to remain in the mental institution, but was released for an unknown reason in 2010, according to police.

A child was seriously injured after a car drove through a front yard, a porch and a house in Colton, according to the Colton Police Department.

The driver left the roadway in the 1000 block of North La Cadena Drive around 6:30 p.m., drove through a yard and hit a boy while he was playing outside, Sgt. Robert Wilson said.

The 2004 blue Honda vehicle then hit one home before coming to rest inside a second home, Wilson added.

The owner of the second home told KTLA that five people live inside and the car crashed into her 20-year-old daughter's bedroom. The family was not home during the accident, the homeowner added.

Police initially reported that the boy is 10-years-old but family later told KTLA that the boy is 8-years-old.

Witnesses said they heard the impact of the crash from down the street.

"I heard the car coming down. It was around 6 o'clock and you could hear the screeching from the tires, like it was putting on the brakes real bad," said Christian Silva, a neighbor. "Then all of a sudden you just hear the car smash into the side of the wall."

Neighbors in the area physically fought the driver following the crash, according to Silva.

"The neighbors right there in that house they thought that the driver was going to run away. I think he was just getting out the vehicle and then the neighbors they got him, and they you know, beat the hell out of him."

The child was transported to a local hospital with major injuries but is expected to survive, according to police.

Family told KTLA that the little boy suffered a shattered leg and liver damage.

Speed is believed to be factor in the crash but it is unknown if alcohol was involved, police said.

The driver is currently being evaluated by investigators.

A woman who was eating at Denny’s when a group of firefighters stopped by to dine after battling the La Cadena Fire, decided to pick up the $400 tab to show her appreciation for them over the weekend.

An anonymous woman paid a $400 bill for firefighters in Colton who just finished battling a blaze. (Credit: Colton Fire Department)

About 25 firefighters had just finished fighting a fire in the La Loma Hills area of Colton on Saturday night when the woman, who wanted to remain anonymous, told the staff she wanted to pay for their meal and tip for a total of $405.22, the Colton Fire Department said in a Facebook post.

She also paid an additional $100 for dessert for other fire crews.