HIGHLAND, California — Two drivers are dead after an apparent case of road rage in San Bernardino County, California which led to a gunfight – even as one had two young children in his car.

“It could have been so incredibly simple,” said Mara Rodriguez, a spokesperson with the San Bernardino County sheriff’s department. “Unfortunately, we have two people who lost their lives instead.”

Police said the incident started Saturday just before 8 p.m. on the 210 Freeway in Highland. A motorcyclist, identified as 38-year-old Jonathan McConnell of Corona, was lane splitting, and clipped a sedan driven by 37-year-old Aaron Harris of Highland.

Instead of pulling to the side of the freeway, deputies say the motorcyclist left the scene, and drove to the parking lot of Joy’s Lounge on Baseline Avenue in Highland.

The sedan driver, Harris, pursued the motorcyclist to the parking lot. He had his 2-year-old and 5-year-old children in the car with him.

“When they arrived in that parking lot, the man in the sedan began yelling at the motorcyclist,” said Rodriguez. “They became confrontational. They were both armed, and a shooting occurred, and the two of them both ended up deceased at the end of the night.”

Deputies said another man in front of the restaurant was wounded on his hand. The two small children in the backseat of the sedan were unharmed.

“We all get angry on the roads sometimes, especially these days there’s so much traffic out there and so many things going on,” said Rodriguez. “But this is a great example of how things can go so wrong so quickly.”

A recent data analysis found that California is the worst state for road rage and confrontational drivers.

CHICO — A Cohasset family is recovering after six homes within their extended family were destroyed in the Park Fire.

They were on vacation when what’s now become the sixth-largest wildfire in California history broke out in Butte County last week. They started calling friends and loved ones to get their important belongings before it was too late.

Alida Markwood told CBS13 her family home, along with those of her mother, her grandmother, uncle, cousin and brother were all impacted. At least one of the homes was a rental and was the source of income for members of her family.

Now they’re focused on what is necessary to rebuild and find comfort again.

“We don’t have a place to go home to. We don’t have a home and so I guess (it’s) a just really hectic, really busy, kind of lost feeling. I know one of the other things you asked was, you know, how we’ve been feeling, and I tried to describe it to people as like a feeling of being lost,” Markwood said.

They are staying with another family member, which Markwood said is a blessing that others may not have.

“It’s somewhere to rest,” she told CBS13.

She said she knows her family is not alone in the impact of the Park Fire. While she hasn’t been able to go back to any of the family homes to see the damage with her own eyes, a neighbor sent photos of one of the homes.

“It was a very sentimental home. My mom and dad built it together, and he passed away a few years ago. So it was like the last of him that we lost. So the sentimental side, all the little things like socks and shoes and things you can go buy,” Markwood said. “But it’s the things that are part of him and part of our family history that we can’t get back. It’s probably the hardest part to wrap your head around.”

They’ve turned to the community for support, through the nonprofit GoFundMe. The company told CBS13 that the nonprofit side was established to provide families, like Markwood’s, with money quickly after a natural disaster. A spokesperson for GoFundMe told CBS13 they can fulfill grant requests as part of the Northern California Wildfire fund in one-to-three days at times.

Markwood said her family needs support in the day-to-day as they process the losses from the Park Fire. Other members of her family impacted by the fire have turned to GoFundMe for immediate support and rebuilding funds.

A former correctional officer at a federal women’s prison in California faces additional charges connected to allegations from inmates who say they were subjected to his rampant sexual abuse while they were incarcerated, starting as far back as 2016.

Darrell Wayne Smith, who worked at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, was arrested on May 11, 2023, in Florida on a 12-count indictment. At the time, he was accused of sexually abusing three women in their prison cells and in the prison’s laundry room between 2019 and 2021, prosecutors said.

The U.S. Department of Justice said in a press release Friday that a federal grand jury issued a superseding indictment that now charges Smith with 15 counts of sexual abuse, including civil rights violations against five female victims in his custody and control at the prison.

“As alleged, Officer Darrell Smith engaged in appalling criminal acts when he sexually abused those in his care and custody,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement. “This superseding indictment is the latest product of the Department’s ongoing work to seek justice for victims of sexual assault at FCI Dublin. We remain steadfast in our commitment to root out sexual assault within the BOP and hold to account those who so egregiously violate their duty.”

FORMER CALIFORNIA PRISON OFFICER CHARGED WITH SEXUALLY ABUSING 3 FEMALE INMATES

The initial indictment against 55-year-old Smith, who now lives in Florida, charged him with 12 counts that allegedly occurred between May 2019 and May 2021. Smith engaged in separate sexual conduct with each of the three female inmate victims, the DOJ said.

The superseding indictment issued last week identifies two additional victims and three additional charges, bringing the number of charges to 15 – two for each of the victims, plus one civil rights violation arising from aggravated sexual abuse Smith is alleged to have engaged in against one of the victims.

The DOJ said Smith’s alleged sexual conduct began as early as August 2016.

FEDERAL PRISON WORKER IN CA PLEADS GUILTY TO SEXUALLY ABUSING INMATES

Darrell Wayne Smith worked at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, Calif. (Anda Chu/MediaNews Group/The Mercury News via Getty Images)

“Federal prison guards must treat prisoners humanely,” U.S. Attorney Ismail Ramsey for the Northern District of California said. “Victimizing inmates sexually and denying them basic civil rights must end.”

Smith is now charged with six counts of sexual abuse of a ward, seven counts of abusive sexual contact, one count of aggravated sexual abuse, and one count of deprivation of rights under color of law.

His arraignment has not yet been set for the superseding indictment, though he is currently set to begin trial on March 17, 2025, in the Northern District of California.

If convicted, Smith faces a maximum penalty of life in prison for each count of aggravated sexual abuse and deprivation of rights under color of law.

US SENATORS DEMAND ANSWERS ON CLOSURE PLAN FOR CALIFORNIA WOMEN’S PRISON WHERE INMATES WERE SEXUALLY ABUSED

Smith could face life in prison on each count of aggravated sexual assault. (iStock)

He also faces a statutory maximum penalty of 15 years in prison for each count of sexual abuse of a ward and a maximum penalty of two years in prison for each count of abusive sexual contact.

Smith is at least the sixth employee at the Dublin prison charged with abusing inmates. An Associated Press investigation last year revealed a culture of abuse and cover-up that had persisted for years at the prison, about 20 miles east of Oakland. That reporting led to increased scrutiny from Congress and pledges from the Federal Bureau of Prisons that it would fix problems and change the culture at the prison.

The prison’s former warden, Ray Garcia, was convicted in December 2022 of molesting inmates and forcing them to pose naked in their cells. He was sentenced to serve six years in prison.

Since the AP’s investigation, the Justice Department has moved more aggressively in recent months to prosecute federal prison employees who are accused of sexually abusing inmates. Deputy Attorney General Monaco and Bureau of Prisons Director Colette Peters visited the Dublin prison in March 2023 and met with advocates working to improve conditions there.

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James Theodore Highhouse, a former prison chaplain at Dublin who pleaded guilty to abusing an inmate in his chapel office and lying to authorities, was sentenced in August to seven years in prison. He is appealing the punishment, arguing it exceeded federal guidelines.

Enrique Chavez, a food service foreman, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 months in prison. Ross Klinger, a recycling technician, has pleaded guilty but has not been sentenced. John Russell Bellhouse, a prison safety administrator, is scheduled to stand trial soon.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.