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| Inglewood emergency personnel respond to the scene where a man, wearing a mask, set a duplex on fire and then shot five members of a family on Saturday, Oct. 20, 2012 in Inglewood, Calif. A father and his 4-year-old son were killed and a woman and two other young children were wounded by the gunman, authorities said. A 6-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl were in critical condition, Inglewood Police Chief Mark Fronterotta said. The woman, said to be the children's mother, was being treated for gunshot wounds to the knee and pelvis. An 8-year-old boy was uninjured. |
INGLEWOOD, Calif.
(AP) -- Police searched for a gunman who wore a painter's mask as
he set fire to a home before going on a shooting spree early Saturday,
killing a father and his 4-year-old son and injuring a woman and two
other young children near Los Angeles.
The 30-year-old father was shielding two of his children when he was shot, Inglewood Police Chief Mark Fronterotta said.
Also,
the 28-year-old woman - said to be the children's mother - carried the
wounded 4-year-old to a neighbor's yard after the attack.
"This
extraordinary rescue attempt by the mother occurred in spite of the
fact that she had gunshot wounds to both legs," a police department
statement said.
A SWAT team has set up a
perimeter and was using dogs to search for the attacker, who may have
lived in a rear house on the property, Fronterotta said.
Police
have no motive. But a neighbor, Judy Castellanos, told the Los Angeles
Times that the suspect lived in one of three units on the property and
described him as "really weird" and "dangerous." She said he had not
paid his rent for years and that a new property owner had been trying to
evict him.
"He had been asked to leave by the
end of this month," she told the newspaper, adding that he was
reclusive and would not let anyone look inside his home.
Five
neighboring houses in Inglewood were evacuated as officers searched
residences and the trunks of cars. Other nearby residents were told to
remain inside with their doors locked. The suspect was described as
armed and dangerous.
Detectives determined the suspect set the house ablaze at about 4 a.m. before he began shooting, Fronterotta said.
He
apparently wore a painter's mask during the attack to try to shield his
identity, the chief said. Investigators were trying to determine
whether he fled or remained in the house as it burned.
Television footage showed a home gutted by flames and a plume of smoke rising over the residential neighborhood early Saturday.
The
woman was being treated for gunshot wounds and was in critical
condition, as was a 6-year-old boy with a gunshot wound to the pelvis
and a 7-year-old girl with a gunshot wound to the chest, according to a
department statement.
The father died in surgery, as did the 4-year-old boy.
An 8-year-old boy was uninjured.
