Speeding Driver Dies in Aftermath of Police Shooting
Laguna Beach police officers approach the stopped vehicle after firing shots. An out-of-control driver who was shot by Laguna Beach police as he tried to flee a six-car collision on Coast Highway early Tuesday morning died from his injuries later that day.
Law enforcement officials have yet to provide an explanation for the bizarre behavior of Colby Joshua Koenig, 26, of Foothill Ranch, who witnesses saw swerving into oncoming traffic lanes and blasting north at high speed.
“If I could have gotten the keys out, he would probably be alive right now,” said Teo Moore, an off-duty emergency medical technician among the first to aid the apparently stunned and trapped motorist. But Moore was nearly injured himself when Koenig unexpectedly revived and restarted his car, attempting to flee and hitting two more vehicles.
An autopsy was performed Wednesday, but the district attorney’s office declined to disclose information that might explain Koenig’s erratic driving because the inquiry into the officer involved shooting remains ongoing.
Teo Moore, in blue pants, renders first aid to Colby Koenig moments before he attempted to drive away from the scene. This was the second highspeed car crash in Laguna Beach since last Friday, when a Paramount man was taken into custody without injury after a pursuit from Dana Point and collisions with three cars near Anita Street, blocks away from Tuesday’s incident.
Police warned Koenig to stop his mangled Mistubishi Lancer before opening fire, apparently to protect a swarm of bystand- ers from injury. “There were numerous people in the area because everyone had come out after hearing the tremendous car crash. There were wrecked cars all over South Coast Highway and you had other drivers stopping to help, business owners and residents in the area, along with police and fire personnel,” explained police Lt. Jason Kravetz.
From five to 20 shots were fired by at least two officers, according to conflicting witness reports.
Koenig was taken by ambulance to Mission Hospital, Mission Viejo, where he died Tuesday night, Kravetz said.
Prior to the shooting, Moore said he spent several minutes giving aid to Koenig as police and emergency personnel were arriving.
“I was trying to get to the keys the whole time but I couldn’t get to the keys. And he started pushing my arms away and started acting violent out of left field. All of a sudden before I knew it he turned the car on and put it in reverse while half my body was inside the car. I was running next to him for a few yards. He then plowed in reverse into a parked car on St. Ann’s. I was four to five yards away from the car. Police came up and gave him several opportunities to surrender. He kept trying to use the car as a lethal weapon. There were several pedestrians around. I think the police did the right thing in shooting the guy.”
Koenig was charged with assault with a deadly weapon before his death.
About 10 minutes before the 7:55 a.m. collisions on Tuesday, sheriff ’s deputies received calls reporting a solo erratic driver at Crown Valley Parkway and Coast Highway, sheriff ’s spokesman Jim Amormino said. As Koenig, proceeded northbound on Coast Highway, he was seen by a member of the fire department driving on the wrong side of the road, two Laguna officers conducting traffic control at Wesley Street and other citizens, Kravetz said.
Some observers estimated Koenig’s speed at 100 m.p.h. Local Larry Doyle, who was walking near Bluebird Canyon Road at the time, said, “He blew by me in the turn lane. He was doing 80 or 90. It was like a movie.”
Koenig’s Lancer hit three other vehicles before stopping sideways near St. Ann’s Drive. Mike Hill, who lives a block from the accident scene, said, “The crash woke me up from a dead sleep.”
Two other drivers suffered minor injuries and were treated and released that day, Kravetz said.
Koenig’s vehicle is being processed at the Orange County crime lab by the district attorney’s office. Kravetz could not discuss the contents of the vehicle.
Five days earlier, Arden Deshon Reneau, 26, of Paramount, fled the scene of a suspected residential burglary in Dana Point, taking a similar route as Koenig. Reneau led four pursuing law enforcement units on a high-speed chase on Coast Highway before colliding with three other cars and crashing his own vehicle near an auto repair shop.
Unlike Koenig, Reneau’s airbag deployed and he was able to extricate himself from the wrecked vehicle. Witnesses said he tried to steal the keyless cars of auto shop customers and then pounded on the window of another vehicle still occupied by one of the collision victims, who refused his entreaties.
Reneau fled on foot and hid in a garage in the 1000 block of Glenneyre Street. Motorist Gilbert Valenzuela, who had followed Reneau, alerted police to his whereabouts. The incident ended without injury.
Reneau is being held at Orange County Central Men’s jail on $100,000 bail and is scheduled to appear in court Jan. 21.
