Who is Elias Huizar? Former Yakima cop accused of child rape, killing 2 women and abducting child
WEST RICHLAND, Wash. - A suspect accused of killing his ex-wife and girlfriend and then fleeing the state with his 1-year-old child has died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after a high-speed chase with Oregon State Police.
The man was identified as 39-year-old Elias Huizar.
On Monday, April 22 around 3:20 p.m., Huizar allegedly shot and killed his ex-wife outside Wiley Elementary School in West Richland. The school went on lockdown. According to an arrest warrant issued by Benton County, Huizar’s nine-year-old son reportedly saw him kill his mother. Officials say she collapsed yet Huizar kept shooting her.
When police learned of the shooting outside the school and learned the identity of the suspect, they executed a search warrant at his home.
Huizar was not in the home, but another woman was found dead inside.
She is believed to be his 17-year-old live-in girlfriend and the mother of the 1-year-old who was abducted by Huizar. It's unclear at this time how she died.
Who is Elias Huizar
Information is still coming to light, but FOX 13 has confirmed that Huizar was a former Yakima Police officer and a school resource officer (SRO) at Washington Middle School in Yakima.
In early February, Huizar was arrested for the rape of a child.
According to legal documents, his 17-year-old girlfriend had a friend over. Huizar is accused of giving them both alcohol, and both fell asleep. The documents say the girlfriend woke up to Huizar sexually assaulting her unconscious 16-year-old friend.
The other teen woke up during the assault and the pair took the then 10-month old and left (that child is the 1-year-old who was abducted).
He followed them in another car while the teens drove around, looking for police. When police went to arrest him for that, he ran back into the home and barricaded himself inside. A SWAT team was called in. After three hours, he was arrested.
Huizar posted bail.
The legal documents said that Huizar had met his girlfriend while he was a school resource officer at her middle school. He got her pregnant at the age of 15, while he was still employed at the school.
That teen was 11 when the pair first met. She reported the inappropriate contact with Huizar, but charges were dropped. She claims they reconnected after he reached out via Facebook. They initiated a sexual relationship and their child was born a year later.
Huizar worked for the Yakima Police Department previously, but "left the department after receiving discipline in late 2021," the department said in a statement. It's unclear what that discipline was for.
Protection order filed for ex-wife
Just days after Huizar was arrested for the child rape charges, his ex-wife filed for a protection order against him. She told the courts that this was the second time she applied for one, and that she "believed our children are in danger if the respondent [Huizar] is allowed visitation" of their two children.
The filing called for an immediate protection order and immediate weapons surrender from Huizar.
The ex-wife wrote in her filing that during their marriage, he was emotionally and verbally abusive.
She also said that on multiple occasions, Huizar would have sex with his ex-girlfriend right in front of their shared children while the kids were at their dad's house. She alleges that Huizar and the girlfriend would have explosive arguments, which sometimes ended in violence that the kids saw and reported back to their mother.
His ex told the courts that Huizar took their two children in 2021 and enrolled them in a school without her permission. She didn't see them for three weeks.
According to her, Huizar suffered from PTSD, major depressive disorder, insomnia, alcohol use disorder and an unspecified personality disorder.
It's unclear if the protection order contributed to the shooting, which took place about two weeks after it was filed.
Shooting aftermath
An AMBER Alert was issued for the 1-year-old after the shooting at Wiley Elementary School. Investigators learned of that homicide and the murder of his girlfriend, and feared for the safety of the child.
According to FOX 12 KPTV, Huizar may have been spotted in North Portland around 1 a.m. on April 23.
Around 3 p.m. that same day, Oregon State troopers were set up down I-5 southbound, getting intel that Haizur was heading that way. They did see Haizur driving the car that the AMBER Alert asked the public to look for.
He did not pull over and a high-speed chase began.
Haizur was stopped in a backup of traffic from an unrelated accident and crashed the car.
According to troopers, he shot himself in the head when he stopped.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The 1-year-old was safely recovered and is in the custody of Oregon officials. Video obtained by FOX 13 shows officers taking him out of the vehicle, still in his car seat.
A 5-year-old and 9-year-old were also left orphaned back in West Richland because of Haizur. According to charging documents for Haizur, the oldest child witnessed his father gunning down his mother outside of Wiley Elementary.
It's unclear where the three surviving children will go.
FOX 13 will provide updates as they become available.
