DAVIS, Calif. — The man accused of going on a deadly rampage, killing 22-year-old Davis police officer Natalie Corona before taking his own life, had been prohibited from possessing firearms, according to a court order obtained by ABC10.
Last year, Kevin Douglas Limbaugh, 48, received an assault charge for punching someone at the Cache Creek Casino Resort where we worked. The charge was downgraded from a felony to a misdemeanor. As part of that charge, he had to relinquish all his firearms.
Limbaugh returned a portion of his AR-15 to the Davis Police Department for destruction and, according to the court order, from then on "there was no indication that the defendant owns, possesses or has custody of a firearm."
Even so, police are investigating how Limbaugh was able to obtain two semi-automatic handguns believed to have been used in the Thursday night attack in Davis.
That's "the million dollar question," Davis Police Department spokesperson Lt. Paul Doroshov told ABC10. "He does not have any firearms registered to him at this point, and where those two guns came from is really a question the investigation is supposed to answer," he continued.
Limbaugh had at least three previous encounters with law enforcement. First, in 2017, when he reported his car had been stolen, and then again in August 2018 when his ex-girlfriend alerted Davis PD Limbaugh was harassing her following a break up by sending text messages telling her to kill herself.
His most recent encounter with law enforcement was late last year during his assault charge.
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Doroshov says none of these incidents were big enough to consider them warning signs for something more serious.
"We have a lot of people with a lot of contacts," he explained. "This doesn't really raise to the level that there's going to be a threat assessment that he's going to be some kind of active shooter one day."
Hector Alvarez, a behavioral threat assessment expert, agreed that from a law enforcement standpoint, the system seemed to work. His biggest question right now is why there weren't warning signs from his family and peers.
"It's just really unusual we haven’t heard people come forward," Alvarez said. "For someone to operate with his level of disconnect from society with no leakage, no warning signs, seems not typical."
It's also concerning for Alvarez that Limbaugh was able to obtain a firearm.
"Again, the mechanism worked. He got in trouble, guns taken away, and yet he still gained access to multiple firearms, and that's concerning," Alvarez explained.
"For someone who wants to get a weapon," he added, "I think it's unbelievably easy."
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