According to police, the dead included a 17-year-old mother and her six-month-old baby.
California:
A six-month-old baby and his teenage mother were among six people killed Monday morning when gunmen opened fire on a California home, police officials said.
Sheriff Mike Boudreaux of the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office described to reporters a heinous crime, a “targeted” attack that he said could be related to gang and drug violence.
Police said they believed two people attacked the home around 3:30 a.m. Monday and fired several shots.
A neighbor called the police, who arrived seven minutes later to find dead and dying people both inside and outside the home.
“This whole situation is tragic, but we have a 17-year-old mother and (her) six-month-old child who were both shot in the head,” Boudreaux said.
Two people survived the attack by hiding in the building, while several of the injured received emergency medical attention from first responders. One of the injured died shortly after being rushed to hospital.
The attack appeared to be drug-related, the sheriff said.
“We also believe this is not a random act of violence. We believe this was a targeted family,” he said.
“We believe there are gang associations involved in this scene, as well as possible narcotics investigations, adding that a week earlier his department had “issued narcotics search warrants at this residence.”
Tulare is a city of about 70,000 people in the San Joaquin Valley, about halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
In the United States, approximately 49,000 people died from gunshot wounds in 2021, with more than half of them suicides.
The country has more guns than people: one in three adults owns at least one gun, and almost one in two adults live in a home with a gun.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NewsMadura staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)
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