5 Dead, Including 3 Children, In San Diego Home Shooting

SAN DIEGO, CA — A man fatally shot three children and their mother inside a Paradise Hills home Saturday morning before fatally shooting himself, San Diego police said.

An injured child — believed to be an 11-year-old boy, according to media reports — was rushed to the hospital and was undergoing emergency surgery Saturday afternoon.

Police responded just before 7 a.m. to reports of a shooting on the 2100 block of Flintridge Dr.. Responding officers found the bodies of a 3-year-old boy, a 29-year-old woman and a 31-year-old man. A 5-year-old boy and 9-year-old boy were hospitalized but later died.

The shooting "appears to be a tragic case of domestic violence murder-suicide," Police Lieutenant Matt Dobbs said at a press conference Saturday afternoon. The woman had attained a restraining order Friday against the male suspect, and police had responded on Nov. 1 to a domestic dispute at the same home, police said.

The man wasn't living at home at the time of the shooting and the couple was in the process of separating or divorcing, Dobbs said.

A 911 call was made from inside the home at 6:49 a.m., and the dispatcher could hear an argument going on in the background but didn't make contact with the caller, Dobbs said.

While police were en route to the home, a next-door neighbor who is a relative of the victims' family called police after hearing an argument and what they believed to be a nail gun firing.

After arriving at the home, officers looked through a window and saw a child's body covered in blood. After forcing entry into the home, police came upon the other victims.