Police: Man wanted in Calif. rapes killed in Ohio

COLUMBUS (AP) — Authorities say a man linked by DNA to series of rapes in Los Angeles was shot by police in Columbus after a freeway chase ended when the man crashed head-on into a tanker truck.

Police were unsure if the man died from being shot or from the collision on Interstate 70. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said authorities believe he was 35-year-old Abram Alexander Bynum.

Columbus police began watching Bynum after a warrant was issued for his arrest in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Prosecutors on Monday filed 19 charges against Bynum in connection to five sexual assaults in the Lancaster and Palmdale area of northern Los Angeles County between 2004 and 2007. Authorities said Bynum lived in the area before moving to Ohio in 2007.