Family found dead in apparent murder-suicide in Calif. ID'd
FONTANA, Calif. - The two adults and two children found dead Monday night in a Southern California home in an apparent murder-suicide have been identified.
Officials say Ramon Miranda, 38, apparently killed his wife, 34-year-old Silvia Miranda, and their children, 12-year-old Ramon Jr. and 10-year-old Rayna, before turning the gun on himself.
Officers called to the home at about 8:30 p.m. Monday found the bodies.
The woman and the children had been shot several times and the man was shot once in the head, police spokeswoman Martha Guzman-Hurtado
said.
Investigators found a handgun.
"Everything that has been confirmed so far indicates it could be a murder-suicide, but that has not been confirmed," Guzman-Hurtado said. "They are questioning other people before making that conclusion."
However, investigators weren't looking for any
suspects, she said.
Police said they were called by the 16-year-old
son of Silvia Miranda who did not live at the home but went there after being
unable to reach his mother all day. When he saw what happened, he called police.
Jonathan Garcia, 22, who lives across the street,
said he was watching television at about 8:30 p.m. when he heard yelling.
"I hear, 'Get down, get down!' I recognize
that as a cop's voice," he said.
Garcia looked through the window and saw police in
SWAT gear with submachine guns.
"So I come outside. They're all rushing at
the house. There's a younger kid, probably 16 years old. He's screaming and
yelling ... he's saying, 'That's my mom! That's my mom!"
Garcia said a woman outside was crying and kept
screaming in Spanish, 'They're all dead, they're all dead. He killed them all!"
Garcia said the family had lived in the home about
three years.
The bodies were spread throughout the house,
Guzman-Hurtado said.
Guzman-Hurtado said records show the last time
police visited the home was in June 2010 for an unspecified code-enforcement
matter.
"It's a sad day in Fontana," Guzman-Hurtado
said. "This is one of those days where we're all supposed to be
celebrating with family, making new memories with family as we say goodbye to
2013 and welcome the New Year. It's not a day to be mourning lives lost."
Fontana is a city of about 200,000 people in San Bernardino County about 50 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.