Crime & Safety
Suspect Fatally Shot Self, 4 Others Before Officers Arrived: SJ
Police are calling the Sunday night incident a quadruple murder-suicide that's one of the most violent 27-year Sgt. Garcia can remember.
SAN JOSE, CA — A suspect likely fatally shot himself and four other people before officers arrived at the scene of the South San Jose murder-suicide on Sunday night, police said Monday afternoon.
At least five people - including the suspect - have died following what San Jose police are calling a quadruple murder-suicide, which included a standoff that started Sunday night and ended early Monday morning.
Police responded to a home in the 500 block of Habbitts Court at about 8:40 p.m. and saw several people, believed to be family members, fleeing from the home, according to Sgt. Enrique Garcia.
Officers received preliminary information that someone inside the home was shooting, and set up a perimeter around the area. Police then observed one victim inside the home still alive and moving, Garcia said.
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Police and officers with the Special Operations Division initiated a rescue with an armored vehicle and found a man and a woman suffering from gunshot wounds. They were taken to the hospital and died a short time later.
Officers didn't know the suspect's location, but again entered the home at 1:35 a.m. Monday to find two other female shooting victims and the suspect dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
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"It's our understanding that the murders and the suicide happened before our officers arrived at the scene, but we had no way of knowing that at the time," Garcia said, adding that no more shots were fired after police arrived.
An investigation is ongoing and police have not determined a motive behind the shooting.
"I've been here for 27 years and I don't remember another incident where a suspect murdered four people and then killed himself," Garcia said.
"It's one of the (most) violent incidents we've encountered here in a long time."
Including Sunday's killings, there have been 19 homicides in San Jose this year. The Santa Clara County medical examiner's office will identify the suspect and the victims once their family members are contacted.
—Bay City News