LOS ANGELES –
A gunman stood over a 16-year-old mother clutching her 10-month-old baby and shot and killed them in a brazen attack in a central California farming community that left six dead, a sheriff said Tuesday.
Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreau said the teenager was fleeing violence early Monday when gunmen caught up with her outside her home in Goshen, a central California community of about 3,000 in the agricultural San Joaquin Valley, and shot the young mother and her child dead. in an assassination style”.
The other four victims ranged in age from 19 to 72, including a grandmother who was shot while she slept. Autopsies are expected to be completed later this week.
Authorities said they were looking for two suspects and offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to their arrest.
“None of this was accidental,” Boudreau said during a news conference Tuesday. “It was deliberate, deliberate and horrific.”
Boudreau rejected his earlier comments to reporters that the attack was likely a cartel, saying investigators were also looking into whether it was gang violence.
“I’m not eliminating that possibility,” the sheriff said. “These individuals were clearly shot in the head, and they were also shot in places where the shooter would have known a quick death would occur. . . . This is also similar to high-level gang affiliation and the style of executions they carry out.”
Law enforcement is familiar with the home, the sheriff said, citing gang activity there that “has occurred routinely in the past,” without elaborating.
The sheriff’s department on Tuesday identified the victims as: Rosa Paraz, 72; Eladio Paraz, Jr., 52; Jennifer Annala, 49; Marcos Paraz, 19; Alyssa Paraz, 16; and Nicholas Paraz, 10 months.
Victims of a shooting in Goshen, Calif., are shown during a press conference Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023, in Visalia, Calif. (Ron Holman/The Times-Delta via AP)
Boudreau said there was “no reason” for the shooters to kill the young mother and her child.
“I know for a fact that this 10-month-old baby relied on the comfort of his mother. There was no reason for them to shoot that baby, but they did,” he said.
Samuel Pina said Alyssa is his granddaughter and baby Nicholas is his great-grandson.
“I can’t imagine what kind of monster would do that,” he told The Associated Press on Monday.
Pina said that Paraz and her baby lived with her father’s family in Goshen, and that her father’s uncle, her father’s cousin, her grandmother and great-grandmother were also killed.
He said the family was in shock.
“It comes in big waves,” he said.
Authorities received a call at 3:38 a.m. Monday about multiple gunshots — so many that it initially appeared to be an active shooting — at the residence in the town of Goshen, about 170 miles (273.59 kilometers) south of downtown Los Angeles.
The person who made the call was later found to be someone hiding on the property. Deputies arrived seven minutes later and found two bodies outside the home on the street and a third body on the doorstep, Boudreau said.
Deputies found more victims in the home, including the grandmother. Down the street they found the teenage mother and her baby. A forensic investigation revealed she tried to run away before the gunman caught up to her, stood over her and fired several rounds into her skull, Boudreau said.
“It’s very clear that this family was targeted,” he said.
Three people survived and will be questioned by authorities. They include a man who hid in the home while the murders took place.
“He was in such a state of fear that all he could do was hold the door, hoping he wouldn’t be the next victim,” Boudreau said.
On Jan. 3, a search warrant at the home led to the arrest of Eladio Paraz Jr., a convicted felon who was killed in Monday’s shooting — though Boudreau said Paraz Jr. was not the “original intended target” and declined to elaborate. Paraz Jr., 52, had an extensive criminal record, including reckless driving to avoid arrest and possession of firearms and drugs, according to jail records.
The search warrant stemmed from a parole compliance check during which investigators found shell casings on the ground, the sheriff said. The residents refused to let officers into the home, Boudreau said.
They returned with a search warrant and arrested Paraz Jr. after finding ammunition, a rifle, a shotgun and methamphetamine in the home, court records show. He was released on bail four days later.
Rural California is no stranger to drug-related violence. In 2020, seven people were fatally shot in a small rural town in Riverside County where the property was being used for illegal marijuana cultivation, a common practice in the area.
The following year, a man accidentally shot himself while working on his family’s illegal marijuana farm in Forbestown, Butte County. His father and two brothers were accused of moving his body to prevent investigators from finding the grow site.
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