A "military-style" helicopter that is actually a movie prop blocked lanes of a Southern California freeway during the Friday morning commute after a semi-truck transporting the chopper struck a bridge, officials said.

The trailer was carrying a "military-style" helicopter when it struck a bridge at the Duncan Canyon Road exit on the 15 Freeway near Fontana just before 7 a.m., according to the California Highway Patrol traffic report.

The chopper then fell off the semi and blocked at least two lanes, CHP said. All lanes reopened by 8:30 a.m.

The helicopter is a movie prop, according to Caltrans.

Police on Friday subdued an ax-wielding man with beanbag rounds before taking him into custody.

The incident happened after 3 p.m. in the 12900 block of West Victory Boulevard in North Hollywood, said LAPD Officer Drake Madison.

Police subdued the man after he refused to drop the ax after he was involved in a hit-and-run crash. There were no other reports of injuries.

A $1.7 billion NFL stadium next to one of the busiest highways in America could draw two California football teams to Los Angeles, if their cities don't provide them better facilities at home.

The San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders support the proposal, revealed Thursday, to build a 72,000-seat arena next to the 405 Freeway in Carson that would host both teams. Each has been in protracted negotiations with their respective cities to build more modern accommodations than the 1960s-era stadiums they play in now.

On Friday, elected officials from Carson, a city between Los Angeles and Long Beach, announced wide community support to build the huge stadium complex on an empty, 168-acre lot in the city. A local coalition, Carson2gether, backs this latest proposal to bring a team to Los Angeles.

"If you can't work it out with your cities, we welcome you with open arms here in Carson," Congresswoman Janice Hahn said at what amounted to a pep rally to show community support.

"We will give you a beautiful new stadium, we will give you fans like you've never had before," Hahn continued.

Representatives from the Chargers and Raiders didn't appear at the rally in Carson. For the most part, the local politicians and community leaders who spoke focused on the Carson community, which must approve the stadium through a ballot measure.

The teams, which have both played full seasons in LA before, stressed in a joint statement released Thursday that they were working with their current cities to "find permanent stadium solutions that are publicly acceptable."

"If we cannot find a permanent solution in our home markets, we have no alternative but to preserve other options to guarantee the future economic viability of our franchises," the teams said.

Oakland reaction: "It would be a great blow"

San Diego reaction: "That’s not how you do business”

After years without an NFL team, Los Angeles suddenly has an abundant set of options with a range of backers, from a major sports development group to a current NFL owner, making a Los Angeles NFL team a likelier prospect that it's been in decades -- though certainly not a guarantee.

The National Football League has long wanted a football team in Los Angeles, a huge market for television viewers, where it hasn't had one since 1994, when the Raiders returned to Oakland. The league set up a committe on Los Angeles, according to the Chargers-Raiders statement.

The Chargers and the Raiders have both been publicly courting moves because both play in outdated stadiums -- Qualcomm Stadium and O.co Coliseum, respectively. Meanwhile, the Oakland situation is even more complicated because there have been talks about the Raiders sharing a venue with the Oakland A's baseball team at new stadiums on the same site.

Any team that relocates to LA would need its proposal approved by three-fourths of the NFL's owners, according to the Chargers-Raiders statement.

NBC Bay Area's Lisa Fernandez contributed to this report.

One of the oldest freeways of the west is also one of the most dangerous in California.

Two members of a Southern California community started a petition in an attempt to reduce the number of crashes.

Jack Fenn and Clare Marter Kenyon created the petition asking for the northbound and southbound lanes of Arroyo Seco Parkway to be entrance and exit only, according to the petition.

"When someone is right here trying to get on the freeway to go north that person's driver's door or their kid in the back seat is the target of a car that might over run you off," Fenn said.

"We’re only asking that the lanes be redesignated which seems like a fairly straight forward way to do it," Fenn said.

According to Caltrans, crashes in Arroyo Seco exceed the statewide norm.

Caltrans worked with LA, Pasadena and others to put out the Historic Arroyo Seco Parkway Corridor Partnership Plan in 2012, said Ali Zaghari, Caltrans deputy district director of operations.

"We still need to get the community input on the actual expected outcome of these concepts," Zaghari said.

More than 800 people have signed the petition which requests Democratic California Sen. Kevin de León’s "immediate attention," according to the petition.

De León, D-Los Angeles, is working with the petitioners, and said he is awaiting an impact study to see how the situation will proceed.

Zaghari said alternatives will be considered in a near future.

Meanwhile, exits such as Avenue 43 will get a flashing beacon as a short term solution in late summer.

Dramatic cellphone video captured the moments after a Toyota Camry struck a parked car and then crashed into a music store, shocking workers inside.

The crash happened when a 94-year-old female motorist drove into Bertrand's Music and Lessons in San Bernardino just before 1 p.m. Police were trying to figure out why. Nobody was seriously hurt.

Bystanders were credited with helping the woman out of her car and to safety.

"We were just standing there talking about how good our day was and the next thing we knew the car was just crashing into the building," said Cody Wakefield, a Bertrand's employee.

Reylina Espinoza said she heard a roar.

"Then we just heard glass breaking and the car going through," she said.

The driver struggled to get out of her car as smoke began to rise. That's when good Samaritans quickly jumped into action.

"We got the lady out of the car and then we noticed there were flames going," Wakefield said.

The owner of Salon Images next door said it took several minutes for firefighters to get there.

By the time firefighters arrived, the flames had gotten too intense to save Bertrand's. Inside, fire charred instruments and songbooks.

As the driver was taken away by ambulance, she told NBC4 she didn't know what happened.

In opening arguments at a downtown courthouse Friday, a lawyer for one of three men accused of carrying out a dramatic takeover-style robbery at a Nordstrom department store made a startling accusation.

During the January 2013 robbery, one person was stabbed in the neck and another was sexually assaulted while the men held 14 people hostage for several hours in the Westchester store at the Promenade at Howard Hughes Center.
Raymond Sherman Jr., Troy Hammock and Everett Allen have been charged in the crime.

An attorney for Sherman, a former employee of the Nordstrom location, however, said at least one of the victims was in on the crime.

Prosecutors kept the focus on surveillance video that showed the hours of terror hostages endured.

"What makes this case so terrifying is the manner in which they carried out the crime,” prosecutor Cynthia Barnes told jurors.

Barnes showed security camera video which captured three men storming into the employee exit as workers tried to leave for the night.

“They yelled at them, they pointed a gun at them, terrified them, threw them to the ground,” she said. “But they weren't done yet. They made each victim strip down to their underwear, and bras if they were women."

She showed video of the hostages being forced into one room during the four-hour standoff.

“And then they forced all 14 into the employee bathroom, made them face the wall, told them ‘You turn around you die, you look at me you die.’"

All three defendants face 14 counts of second degree robbery.

Everett Allen is also on trial for stabbing one of the employees who hid in a locker room to call her husband, who then called police.

Raymond Sherman is also charged with kidnapping and several counts of forcible rape, but in a twist, his attorney argued the rape victim was in on the crime.

"They planned to do a robbery at Nordstrom and there would be a sexual assault claim during the robbery and then (one of the women) would file a lawsuit against Nordstrom and the mall for millions of dollars and then split the proceeds with Sherman," defense attorney Arthur Lindars told jurors.

His attorney added that plan did not call for Sherman getting caught.

Witness testimony begins Monday.
 

A 23-year-old man was arrested in connection with stabbing his 77-year-old grandmother in Pasadena, deputies said.

The incident happened in the 1700 block of North Allen Avenue, deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Altadena station said.

The grandmother was in very serious condition.

Refresh this page for updates.

Gov. Jerry Brown has blocked parole for a former leader of the notorious Mexican Mafia prison gang who has turned on his former comrades and now aids law enforcement.

Brown announced Friday that he was blocking the release of 52-year-old Rene "Boxer" Enriquez.

Enriquez has been in prison since 1993 serving a sentence of 20 years-to life in prison for two murders, multiple assaults and conspiracy to traffic in controlled substances.

He drew attention last month when elite Los Angeles Police Department officers cleared a downtown Los Angeles building so Enriquez could speak to a gathering of police chiefs and business leaders.

Enriquez spoke about the growth and operations of a prison gang that has evolved into a transnational criminal enterprise.

A passenger on a Southwest Airlines flight was rushed to a New Mexico hospital Friday after having an apparent heart attack after the plane departed Dallas Love Field.

Flight 947 was scheduled to fly to Las Vegas but was diverted to Albuquerque.

Members of the flight crew and fellow passengers provided aid using an on-flight medical emergency kit until the plane landed and was met by medics on the ground in New Mexico.

Laurie Holloway, spokeswoman for the Dallas Zoo and a former EMT, was a passenger on the flight and said a passenger physician and a flight attendant with a medical background were among those who helped.

"They put him on oxygen, monitoring his pulse, using a stethoscope, gave him an aspirin. That was a smart move," said Holloway. "I could tell by the way that [the flight attendant] and the physician were handling things that they knew what they were doing."

According to Holloway, the man was with his wife, and while he was receiving medical treatment the man and his wife said that he was 58 years old and from the Dallas area.

The plane eventually resumed its flight to Las Vegas.

There is no word on the man's condition or identity.

If you snore or have sleep apnea, there is a breakthrough treatment that may help, without the awkward masks typically used by chronic sufferers.

Sleep apnea, a condition that leads sleeping people to stop breathing for periods at night, can lead to high blood pressure and an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.

It can occur because of a problem in the brain, but more often it’s the result of an obstruction in the throat. When sufferers are on their back, the tissue drops down and blocks breathing.

Medicines don’t help. Most people get what’s called a CPAP mask, which pushes air past the obstruction, but most people dislike the mask because of its size and cumbersome tubes. More than 50 percent of people prescribed to wear one never do, or stop using it within a few months.

Irwin LaBlanc has had trouble sleeping for seven years.

“My symptoms are waking up throughout the night, snoring that became more severe,” he said.

Sleeping tests showed that LaBlanc was suffering from sleep apnea.

At first, he was prescribed the CPAP mask, but he disliked the device.

“For me, it was more trouble than it was worth,” he said.

So doctors recommended a tiny new device called Inspire that can be implanted into a patient. It is implanted using three tiny incisions for a battery pack.

“A signal is sent to the battery,” said Dr. Ryan Osborne of Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center, who performed LaBlanc’s surgery. “The battery then stimulates the nerve that moves the tongue forward so the patient is able to continue to breathe normally.”

LeBlanc’s breathing has dramatically improved, his doctors said.

“He had at least 75 percent fewer episodes where he stopped breathing,” said Dr. Heather Davis-Kingston. “Having a device like this will save lives.”

LeBlanc said it has already changed his life.

“When I wake up in the morning, I can just tell how much better I feel when I get out of bed,” he said. “I’ve slept so much better.”

The disappearance of an Orange County woman who argued with her ex-boyfriend after a Valentine's Day date and then vanished has a family worried for her life.

"She is my sister and best friend. This is very unlikely for her not to contact us and be gone for so many days," said Patricia Alonso, whose 27-year-old sister Erica went missing after a night out on Valentine's Day.

Erica Alonso, one of six siblings who lives with her parents, was last seen in the early morning hours of Feb. 15 driving away from an Irvine home after an argument with her date, a man her family said was her ex-boyfriend.

Her family spoke Friday morning and said the pair remained friends after splitting up. They had an afternoon lunch together Feb. 14, her sister said.

"I was with her earlier that day, I know that she was meeting up with her date and going out," Patricia said.

Later that night, the pair befriended a couple at the Sutra Lounge in Costa Mesa, where they stayed until 1:30 a.m., Orange County sheriff's officials said.

Erica and her ex-boyfriend then left the bar with the couple in a red Toyota Scion and went to the ex-boyfriend's Irvine residence, officials said.

About 3:45 a.m., the pair argued outside, and the couple left the home, Orange County Sheriff's Lt. Jeff Hallock said. About 10 to 15 minutes later, Erica drove away in her white 2014 Honda Civic.

Erica's social media accounts, cellphone records and bank activity have been silent since that night.

"I know that she is out there somewhere, we have the hope that she is alive," her father Isaac Alonso said Friday morning. "We need all the help that we can get. It's very hard for us."

Investigators said the couple came forward after seeing media reports, and officials said their story lines up. The ex-boyfriend has also been interviewed by deputies, and Erica's case is being considered a missing person case.

"There are no facts to indicate this is a crime," Hallock said.

Hallock said investigators believe Erica is with her car and asked the public to look for a white Honda Civic with license plate #7FSS563.

"We just want her home," Patricia said through tears. "We miss her so much."

Miami Police are looking for the daredevil responsible for hanging from a 50-story crane in downtown Miami with just one hand.

Police say he is a threat to himself and potentially others.

"The message from the Miami police department is we don't want anyone else doing it, just imagine a teenager trying to do it," Officer Kenia Fallat said.

The daredevil, who doesn't want his name released, wears a mask and uses a selfie stick to show himself at the top of the construction site. At one point, he shows himself crossing a narrow beam from a dizzying height.

"He's risking his life but what we don't want are others to copy him, and indeed it's not only dangerous but also illegal,” she added.

Miami police are distributing pictures of him taken from his social media videos. In the photos, you can clearly see his face. The man has a GoPro camera strapped to his head.

"We can't release a name right now but we have a picture of him and we believe he is not acting alone," Fallat said.

Police also believe another man is involved in trespassing with the daredevil.

If you have any information, police urge you to call Miami-Dade Crimestoppers at (305) 453-TIPS.

The 710 Freeway in East Los Angeles was shut for four hours overnight after a tanker truck's fuel tank ruptured and spilled diesel over the road.

More than 60 gallons of fuel spilled onto the lanes on the northbound side just south of the 60 Freeway  around 11 p.m. Friday, California Highway Patrol said.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department’s Health Hazardous Materials Division cleaned up the spill and made sure it did not get into any water ways. Cal Trans also assisted.

All lanes were closed at 11:18 p.m. Friday, and traffic was diverted to the 5 Freeway.  The road reopened just after 3 a.m. Saturday.

A California Highway Patrol cruiser burst into flames after being struck in a hit-and-run in El Monte early Saturday.

The officer had stopped on the right shoulder due to a separate incident when a minivan and a dark-colored sedan collided on the eastbound 10 Freeway at around 2 a.m, the California Highway patrol said.

The minivan veered right and hit the CHP unit before it overturned, resting in the right shoulder. The cruiser caught on fire however no one was in the vehicle, and the traffic cop was uninjured.

Los Angeles County Fire Department helped get the driver out of the crashed minivan, and they were taken to the USC Medical Center for treatment to moderate injuries.

The dark colored sedan took off, and the incident is being investigated as a hit-and-run.

Community members concerned over Wednesday's explosion, which rained ash down on a South Bay neighborhood, challenged safety assertions by officials of the Torrance ExxonMobil plant Friday night during a sometimes testy town hall discussion.

"This whole community has been polluted with something--toxic or not," said Steve Goldsmith. He was one of a series of Torrance residents who described fibers and whitish dust raining from the sky.

More than two hundred attended the meeting, some standing.

"I get why you're concerned," said Brian Ablett, Refinery Manager, repeatedly telling those in attendance the company is committed to safety.

The materials that escaped were from a catalyst inside the unit and could be an irritant to the skin or if inhaled, but otherwise are not considered hazardous, according to Ablett.

They were identified as metal oxides and amorphous silica -- commonly known as diatomaceous earth -- in a statement ExxonMobile released Thursday night. In a question and answer session with reporters before the town hall -- the first time Ablett had spoken publicly of the explosion and its aftermath -- he said the fibers were from heat insulation in the unit, similar to what would be found in a modern house, without asbestos.

Fiber of fiberglas and glass wool were noted in the findings published Saturday by the the governmental entity responsible for monitoring regional air quality, the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD), which took its own samples for analysis.  No asbestos was found, and airborne levels of hydrocarbons, pasticulates and sulfur compounds "were consistent with levels that are typically seen in outdoor air," the AQMD report stated.

AQMD tested specifically for hexavalent chromonium, a known carcinogen, and in fallout samples found levels below 60 parts per billion, "which is over 250 tims below th California state (OEHHA) Residential Soil Screeing level," acording to the report.

The AQMD also disclosed there was initial concern that radioactive material may have been released, but said that was refuted within three hours of the explosion.

During the town hall, Ablett was accompanied by a medical doctor on staff at the Torrance refinery: Ellyn McIntosh, MD, MPH, the site occupational health manager. Responding to questions, she acknowledged the released substances could be an irritant to skin or eyes, and trigger breathing difficulties for asthmatics, but insisted the substances were not toxic, and rejected the suggestion they are associated with cancer.

"As far as being a carcinogenic, that is not really accurate," Dr. McIntosh said.

What caused the explosion in an "Electrostatic Precipitator," Ablett said is not yet known. It is contained in a larger section of the refinery known as the Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit, where a problem had become apparent Monday and automatically shut it down, Ablett said.

Fortunately, there were no workers in the immediate area of the Precipitator at the time of the explosion. Some of the injuries, he said, were incurred as workers ran from the area. The four treated Wednesday at Long Beach Memorial Hospital were released later that same day.

Several audience members questioned why the refinery did not activate the siren alert system that the community has heard previously during periodic testing, but not Wednesday morning.

Ablett said it was because refinery staff was able to take "fence-line" readings early on and determine that the released substances were not hazardous. Pressed further by questioners who said the public ought to have been notified immediately, Ablett said the decision will be reviewed during ExxonMobil's internal investigation of how the emergency was handled.

As it was, about 90 minutes after the explosion, the city of Torrance sent out reverse 911 calls to the neighborhoods surrounding the 750-acre refinery, advising residents to close windows and stay inside.

Torrance Unified School Districts directed 14 of its schools, with an enrollment of some 12,000 children, to shelter in place until the order was lifted later in the morning.

One woman in the audience, Sherry Lear, said the private Montessori school attended by her son, who has asthma, was not notified to bring children inside, and they remained outside half an hour after the explosion.

"Standing here as a parent, this is very scary to me," Lear said. "I'm not happy with the response on this."

Ablett replied: "We will seriously take a look at that."

Others worried about the pollution released after the explosion when fuel was burned off through a flare stack. One questioner asked how much was flared off, and when Ablett replied he had not brought the numbers with him, she chided: "Why are we having a meeting and you conveniently don't have the information tonight?"

The AQMD report published online Saturday revealed that within half an hour of explosion, E xxonMobil notified the Governor's Office of Emergency Services that the refinery released more than 500 pounds of SoX (oxides of sulfur).  But levels of airborne sulfur compounds that AQMD later easured did not exceed health standards, AQMD stated.

Also speaking were two representatives of the United Steelworkers Union, which represents
refinery workers, and currently is striking Tesoro. The union speakers said refineries need to take greater steps for safety.

The refinery in Torrance dates to 1929, when much of the surrounding area was open field, though homes were already appearing in the adjacent residential neighborhood along Del Amo Boulevard east of Crenshaw Boulevard. Ablett, who said he previously had overseen two other refineries in his 27 years with ExxonMobil, was assigned to manage the Torrance facility nine months ago.

Shortly after Ablett took charge, California's Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) began a series of inspections that found 14 violations -- 12 deemed general, and two serious -- more violations than had been found in the previous four years. Ablett pointed out that last year Cal/OSHA instituted a more detailed inspection procedure, and believes that explains the increase. He called the violations "regrettable," but said the safety issues that were identified have been fixed.

Cal/OSHA issued an order prohibiting use of the damaged precipitator. Repair work cannot begin until the investigation is concluded, Ablett said.

For now, the refinery is not producing gasoline, though it still has some reserves, Ablett revealed. He said there is a workaround possible so that the refinery could resume gasoline production before the Fluid Catalytic Cracker can be brought back on line, but he declined to estimate what that would be.

The role the refinery plays in the economy of Torrance and local employment was acknowledged by some who asked questions. Also recalled was the period in the 1980's when the South Bay was rocked by a series of accidents at the Torrance facility and other refineries. In Torrance, there was a consent decree that to this day requires ExxonMobil to take certain safety precautions.

Some wondered why there is still a refinery so close to residential neighborhoods. But others, including Joe Mendez, see it as an asset, so long as it is operated safely.

"We certainly don't want you to go back to the 1980's, " Mendez said.

Water spewed from the ground in Los Angeles when a fire hydrant was sheared in a hit-and-run crash that damaged two parked vehicles, police said.

Officers are searching for the driver of a car that left the scene of a crash in the neighborhood of El Sereno, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman said.

Witnesses took down the license plate number of the vehicle that police say crashed into a parked car and pickup truck, knocking the parked car into the fire hydrant in the 5260 block of Borland Road at around 1:50 a.m., the spokesman said.

The vehicle has not been found, officers said.

Fire crews eventually shut off the water released by the hydrant, officers said.

No injuries were reported, and it was unclear if the car suspected of colliding with the parked vehicles was stolen, officers said.

Efforts to save two children trapped in a burning New Jersey home failed, and both perished in the blaze even as relatives begged the older girl to jump from the window, authorities and witnesses said Saturday.

Neighbor Shantya Lemay said she watched a man yelling to 6-year-old Jayda McEachin from outside the three-story home on Central Place in Orange.

"He's like, 'Jump! Daddy got you! Daddy got you!' And she wouldn't come," Lemay said. "The oldest daughter was out here screaming and hollering. And everybody kept trying to go back inside with, like, fire extinguishers and tried to get the baby out."

People could hear the little girl's yells, said neighbor Tyrena Simms.

"She was screaming out the window, screaming for help," Simms said of the 6-year-old. "But the fire was too aggressive."

NBC 4 New York cameras captured a man walking into the burning building, but firefighters ran after him and quickly pulled him back out.

By the time firefighters arrived on the third floor of the home, McEachin and her 1-year-old brother Zion Tony were dead, the Essex County Prosecutor's Office said.

The children's mother and six other occupants escaped the fire, which started shortly after 8:30 p.m. Friday. Two were treated at a hospital.

"They physically jumped out of the window," said Orange Mayor Dwayne Warren as he described the escape of at least some members of the group. "The blaze apparently was just waving through the house very quickly, and given the heat of the blaze and smoke they jumped out of the window to safety."

A paramedic on the scene said EMS had transported a woman to the hospital with burns on over 60 percent of her body. Authorities didn't immediately release details of the condition of the people who were taken to the hospital.

Authorities are investigating the cause of the fire.

-- Michael George contributed to this report.

A pair of major venues in the Bay Area of California have cancelled scheduled appearances from Bill Cosby.

The Flint Center in Cupertino and The Wells Fargo Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa have postponed and not rescheduled Cosby's June 6 and 7 shows after a Change.org campaign pressured venues into canceling the shows.

"There was a pretty strong sentiment from the Foothill/DeAnza college community that it was their feeling that given the allegations surrounding Mr. Cosby that it was their preference the Flint Center not host the event," Flint Center General Manager Paula Davis said.

Dolores Edelstein was one of the organizers for the petition.

"With any type of sexual assault or rape, the shame and the fear lies on the side of the victim. And what really should happen is the shame should belong to the perpetrator," Edelstein said. "But because of the statute of limitations women feel like, they just can’t speak up."

Some Flint Center patrons don't agree with the decision to cancel Cosby's appearances.

"I think it's unfair and incorrect," Cupertino-resident Naeem Zafar said. "The whole principal is that we presume innocent until convicted."

Catching a blue marlin weighing over 1,000 pounds is extremely rare but a Brooklyn teenager did just that off the coast of Kona, Hawaii, on Wednesday.

"For my first one to be a grander it's just an unreal experience," 16-year-old Kai Rizzuto told NBC News on Thursday.

The fish weighed in at 1,058 pounds and measured longer than 11 feet from its jaw to its tail.

Rizutto, grandson of sport fishing writer Jim Rizzuto, said people from all over the world travel to Kona in hopes of reeling a grand blue marlin (more than 1,000 pounds).

Jim Rizzutto told NBC News on average, only two blue marlins weighing more than 1,000 pounds are caught in Kona each year.

Kai Rizzuto caught the fish aboard the Ihu Nui boat with Capt. McGrew Rice. A GoPro video and photos posted on Ihu Nui Sportfishing's Facebook show Kai Rizzuto wrangling the blue marlin onto the 45-foot boat.

"He was elated," Rice said Saturday. "He’s been fishing with his grandfather since he was 2 years old. Catching a 'grander' is like hitting a grand slam home run."

The biggest marlin ever caught was in 1953, when angler Alfred Glassell Jr. reeled in a 1,560-pound marlin off Cabo Blanco, Peru, according to Marlin Magazine.

A 22-year-old man accused of killing his parents in their Point Loma home is not mentally competent to stand trial, a judge ruled Friday.

Peter Haynes, 22, will instead be sent to Patton State Hospital for treatment. Haynes -- who has been diagnosed with a form of schizophrenia -- will remain at the hospital for up to three years, or until his competency is restored.

The suspect’s arraignment was been postponed after his defense attorney argued Haynes cannot understand the charges against him and assist in his own defense.

He was ordered to undergo mental evaluations in December, days after his parents, David and Lissa, were killed.

On Nov. 28, 2014, the day after Thanksgiving, officers found the couple’s front door ajar and the parents suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. They died shortly after at the hospital.

Police say they found Haynes hours later walking near the crime scene with a semi- automatic handgun in his pocket.

His sister, Kimberly, told NBC 7 Hays has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Two weeks before her parents’ deaths, she posted a picture to Facebook that showed her brother teaching her how to hold a gun.

If he’s declared competent to stand trial, Haynes will face two counts of first-degree murder, with special circumstances that hint at premeditation. Prosecutors say Haynes was lying in wait when he shot his parents and that he committed a burglary in the commission of the homicides.