Three people were shot to death late Wednesday afternoon in Oxnard in what investigators suspect may have been a murder-suicide.
Police said they were called to the 1200 block of Hull Place about 4:35 p.m. When they arrived, they found two women who had been shot to death.
Detective Luis McArthur said the women apparently were related and lived together in a two-story townhome near Hull Place and South M Street. One woman was in her 20s while the second was in her 40s. McArthur said one woman was found dead along the walkway leading up to the townhome, while the second was found inside the home. It was unclear which woman was outside and which was inside. McArthur added that at least two young children also lived with the women. Neither of the children were harmed in the double homicide, he said.
About 30 minutes later, police were notified of another shooting, this one along the 300 block of South Marquita Street. When police arrived, they found a man dead from a gunshot wound in the backyard of the home.
McArthur said investigators believe the man was responsible for killing the two women. As to his ties to the women, McArthur said "this is something we are still trying to determine."
McArthur also could not say exactly how the women were related, saying investigators were still trying to determine their exact relationship.
He said police believe the man was responsible for killing the pair based on eyewitness accounts of the shooter and based on prior calls to police involving the suspect.
Hull Place is a residential neighborhood with apartment buildings and townhomes as well as single-family residential homes near the Oxnard Airport.
Frank Lorenzo said he was visiting a friend across the street from where the women lived when he heard what sounded like four shots.
"I didn't get to see the person who shot them," said Lorenzo as he stood among a group of onlookers standing near the crime scene Wednesday night. Helicopters hovered overhead as Lorenzo spoke.
McArthur said the neighborhood where the women were shot is densely populated and that numerous people heard the shots.
"We got quite a number of calls from this area after the shooting," McArthur said as he stood about 100 yards from the townhome where the women lived.
Police also searched the home where the man was found shot to death. McArthur said the man apparently lived at the South Marquita Street home.
The South Marquita Street house, in the city's La Colonia neighborhood, is about two miles east of where the women were shot to death.
Unlike the crime scene on Hull Place, there was no crowd of onlookers along South Marquita Street on Wednesday night.
McArthur declined to release the names of the victims, saying authorities first wanted to contact their next of kin.
Authorities were expected to release more information on the shootings later.
The killings were the first homicides in Oxnard this year, police said.
Copyright 2013 - Ventura County Star, Calif.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service