11:59 PM PDT on Wednesday, May 26, 2010
By SARAH BURGE
The Press-Enterprise
Sheriff's deputies responding to a domestic violence report late Tuesday shot and killed a 39-year-old Lake Elsinore man and his pit bull outside the man's home, authorities said.
Ashword Codd was behaving aggressively and carried what appeared to be a gun when he came out of his Cypress Glen Court house with his pit bull, authorities said. The home is on a cul-de-sac in the Canyon Hills area.
Deputies shot the dog first, then Codd, said Sgt. Mike Lujan of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.
According to a sheriff's news release, a woman had called deputies for help from a neighborhood doughnut shop shortly before midnight. The woman said that Codd -- with whom she has three children -- had assaulted her.
Sheriff's officials declined to release the woman's name, but court records show Codd has a 2008 domestic violence-related conviction for an assault involving his girlfriend, Reyna Johnston, now 35, and their young daughter.
Deputies arrived at the doughnut shop to find the woman with what appeared to be a broken nose. They went to the couple's home and called for Codd to come outside. At first, he refused, but when he did emerge from the front door he confronted the deputies "in a hostile and aggressive manner," the release said.
Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Joe Borja said Codd was holding a long lighter -- the kind used to light a fire -- as if it were a gun.
Erin McGee, 19, who lives across the street, said she heard a commotion after midnight and went to the window. She saw her neighbor with his pit bull arguing with four deputies.
"A bunch of rounds went off," McGee said. "I just dove in the hallway."
When she looked outside again, her neighbor and his dog had both been shot.
Court records show the man shot by deputies had a 2008 domestic violence-related conviction for an assault.
"It was horrible," she said, adding that her neighbor's body was lying in front of his house well into the morning.
McGee said the family had just moved in around Easter and that Codd seemed like a nice person. Codd had mentioned that he wanted his wife, who is a hairstylist in Orange County, to stay home more with their children, McGee said.
Investigators were still at the scene Wednesday afternoon. Yellow crime-scene tape blocked access to the couple's large two-story home. Multiple bullet holes in the stucco near the front door were visible from the street.
Lujan said the couple's three children were asleep upstairs when their father was shot.
Sheriff's officials did not release the names of the deputies involved but said they have been placed on paid administrative leave, which is routine in such circumstances.
Lujan said Codd worked at an oil refinery in the Los Angeles area. The couple had a 2-year-old boy and two girls ages 3 and 5.
According to court documents, Codd was convicted in connection with an August 2007 incident, during which he threw a cell phone at Johnston while she held their infant daughter, then grabbed Johnston by the hair. He used a knife to cut off some of her hair and in the process injured her shoulder. A month later, Johnston accused him of threatening her with a steak knife while she lay in bed with the baby, court documents show.
Codd was sentenced to 180 days in jail and three years of probation and was required to enroll in domestic violence prevention classes, court records show.
Reach Sarah Burge at 951-375-3736 or sburge@PE.com
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