Month: September 2026

YUCCA VALLEY, Calif. (KESQ) — The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department is investigating an assault at a Sonic restaurant in Yucca Valley that left two employees injured.

Deputies were called to the restaurant in the 58100 block of Twentynine Palms Highway around 9:49 p.m. Monday, September 14.

According to the sheriff’s department, three people — described as two adult women and one adult man — were in the drive-thru and became upset with the service.

Investigators say someone in the group threw a bottle through a restaurant window. An employee then went outside and took a photo of the vehicle’s license plate.

Deputies say the three people then got out of the vehicle, entered the restaurant and assaulted several employees. Two employees were injured, according to the sheriff’s department. The suspects left the area before deputies arrived.

The attack was captured on video, which is now circulating on social media. News Channel 3 is not showing the video because no one has been charged in connection with the incident.

The family of one of the employees spoke with News Channel 3 about what happened.

Her sister, Aurora Goodson, said she was shaken when she learned her sister had been assaulted.

“She sounds shaken which to me is immediately alarming because she’s just so strong and nothing really gets to her, nothing really shakes her like that,” Aurora said.

Goodson said her sister told her that her phone had been stolen and that she had been assaulted, but stayed behind to help her coworkers before going to the hospital because she believed the other employees needed more immediate attention.

Aurora’s mother, Jennifer, lives in Louisiana and said watching the video of the attack was frightening.

“It’s just my daughter in a corner with three people going after her. I didn’t understand any of it,” Jennifer said.

Social media posts also allege that the people involved were a family, including a juvenile who attends Desert Hot Springs High School.

News Channel 3 has also learned a Desert Hot Springs student athlete was absent from a recent football game. The student’s current status on the team is unclear.

The sheriff’s department says it is still working to determine whether the juvenile mentioned in the social media posts is connected to the assault.

The family says the employee is still in pain and they are concerned about what it will be like for her to return to work.

“I can’t imagine what going back to work is going to be like for her. Every time the door opens, are they going to jump?” Jennifer said.

Palm Springs Unified School District said it is aware of social media posts about the incident.

In a message to families, the district said it is cooperating with law enforcement and that any appropriate disciplinary action will be taken.

The sheriff’s investigation remains ongoing.

Stay with News Channel 3 for more.

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (KESQ) – “He’s a really great person, really friendly, really appreciable.”

That’s how Pablo Perez, a helicopter mechanic, remembered George Marciniw. Marciniw was the pilot flying NewsChopper4 when it crashed on Tuesday. Marciniw, reporter Eliana Romero, and a pedestrian on the ground, Edy Guitierrez Mejia, were killed in the crash.

Perez and Marciniw had a close working relationship that began a couple of years ago, when Marciniw approached Perez about working on some of the other helicopters he owned.

Perez recounted some of the meals shared after late nights working on helicopters and the interactions they shared.

“About two months ago, he was coming in from Arizona flying in a newly-purchased helicopter, and it lands, and it was like 118 [degrees],” Perez remembered. “He stopped by Blythe and he called me, [and] goes, ‘Pablo, I can’t get my helicopter started!’ I go, ‘Does it have a lithium battery?’ He goes, ‘Yeah, it does. It’s a new helicopter. New battery.’ I say, ‘That’s the problem.'”

With Perez’s guidance, Marciniw put an ice pack on the battery and let it cool off. Within an hour, the engine started, and he was back in the air.

Those phone calls were common between the two. On Tuesday, just hours before the crash, Perez called Marciniw to ask about one of his helicopters he had been working on the past month.

“On Tuesday, about noon, I called him like, ‘Hey, George, you know, I, I need you to choose what type of parts you want to buy, you know – new or repaired cylinders…,'” Perez recounted. “That’s the last time I talked to him, like seven hours before the crash.”

“But he’s a really good guy. He’ll give you the shirt off his back if it, if it came down to it. A high time pilot, real experienced,” Perez explained. He said he was always looking to give back to the community and taught dozens of other pilots how to fly through his flight school. He also flew by the book and never cut corners.

The National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) is continuing its investigation into the crash.

Perez said the circumstances leading up to it could provide some clues; flying low due to a nearby airport and with virtually no airspeed, he called that set of factors dangerous.

“I think there were near Van Nuys Airport. So I think the helicopters have to stay below 500ft because of the airport traffic, you know, and, and at 500 feet, you know, you’re hovering out of ground effect,” Perez said. “For one thing, there’s zero airspeed. And in the helicopter industry, most pilots, they’ll know it’s a dead man’s curve. You know, you got no airspeed, you’re more vulnerable.”

Flying so low to the ground with so little airspeed, Perez said there is only a small window of time to try to maneuver the helicopter.

“He had about maybe six or ten seconds from 500ft to land a helicopter, try to find a place to land,” he explained.

“I’m not going to speculate and let the investigator decide what exactly happened, but there’s definitely it seems like an engine did fail or something happened to the engine because they lost power.”

Perez acknowledged that the investigations will take several months. Between the federal agencies working on finding out what happened to the manufacturers of the helicopter and the engine (Airbus and Turbomeca, respectively), he said there was a lot to uncover.

In the aftermath, though, he hoped his friend could be remembered for who he was.

“He was always… he was a giver. You know, he was a giver. Anything you wanted, you know. He always, ‘Hey, you need something, Pablo? Let me know.'”

“He’s going to be missed, you know.”