A shooter stood over a 16-year-old woman and her 10-month-old infant in a central California farming village and blasted bullets into their skulls, a sheriff said Tuesday.
Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux said the teenager was fleeing the violence early Monday when the killers caught up to her outside the residence in Goshen, a central California village of roughly 3,000 people in the agricultural San Joaquin Valley, and murdered her and her infant “assassination-style.”
In the shootout, four persons were slain.
Four additional fatalities, including a grandmother shot while sleeping, were 19 to 72 years old.
Their autopsies should be finished this week.
Authorities offered US$10,000 for information leading to the arrest of two individuals.
“None of this happened by accident,” Boudreaux said Tuesday.
“Deliberate, purposeful, and horrible.”
Boudreaux said detectives are also investigating gang activity, reversing his earlier statement to media that the attack was likely a cartel assassination.
Sheriff: “I’m not ruling that out.”
“These guys were plainly shot in the head and in areas where the perpetrator knew they would die quickly… This resembles high-ranking gangs and their killings.”
The sheriff stated gang activity “had consistently happened in the past” at the property without providing details. He said the adolescent, her grandma, and the infant were innocent victims.
Boudreaux claimed the perpetrators had “no motivation” to kill the young mother and her kid.
“I know this 10-month-old was comforted by his mother. They shot the infant without cause.”
“I can’t put my brain around what sort of monster would do this,” he told The Associated Press on Monday.
Pina stated Parraz and her infant lived with her father’s family in Goshen and that her father’s uncle, cousin, grandmother, and great-grandmother were slain.
He stated the family is shocked.
“Big waves,” he remarked.
At 3:38 am Monday, authorities got a report of many shots being fired at a property in Goshen, 273.59 km south of downtown Los Angeles. It first seemed to be an active shooter scenario.
The caller was found hiding on the property. Boudreaux said deputies found two dead outside the residence in the street and a third at the doorstep seven minutes later.
Deputies found several victims inside the residence, including the grandmother. They found mom and baby down the block. Boudreaux said forensics showed she tried to get away before the gunman caught up with her and stood over her, and fired multiple bullets into her head.
Police investigating
“This family was targeted,” he stated.
Police will question three survivors. One man hid in his residence throughout the killings.
“He was so afraid that all he could do was hold the door, hoping he wasn’t the next victim,” Boudreaux recalled.
Boudreaux said Eladio Parraz Jr., a convicted criminal slain in the shooting Monday, was not the “original intended target” and declined to clarify.
Prison documents show 52-year-old Parraz Jr. drove erratically to escape capture and possessed guns and narcotics.
The sheriff claimed a parole compliance check uncovered shot casings on the ground, prompting the search warrant. Boudreaux claimed the residents refused to let officials in.
After finding ammo, a rifle, a shotgun, and methamphetamine, they detained Parraz Jr. Four days later. He posted bail.
Rural California has drug-related violence. Seven individuals were killed in a remote Riverside County hamlet in 2020 after the property was exploited for illegal marijuana production.
In Forbestown, Butte County, a guy accidentally shot himself while working at his family’s illicit marijuana grow the following year. His father and two brothers allegedly moved his body to hide at the farm site.
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