Two children and two adults were found shot to death in a California home after police received a 911 call from someone who said they had opened fire inside and planted “explosive traps” throughout the residence, authorities said.
Detectives are investigating the Tuesday, Jan. 27 incident at a Rancho Cordova home in Sacramento County like a murder-suicidethe Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement shared with X that evening.
The sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to an inquiry from Us Weekly on Wednesday, January 28.
two 911 callsincluding an initial call about the sound of gunshots, led homicide detectives to the Rancho Cordova residence in the early morning hours of Jan. 27, according to ABC10.
A dispatcher told sheriff’s deputies that a second 911 caller told them, according to the sacramento beethat “‘I’m the shooter. I’m setting up booby traps and turning off my cell phone’”.
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Law enforcement then evacuated at least five homes in the Kavala Ranch neighborhood, where they later found four people dead inside one residence, the newspaper reported.
Sacramento County Sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Edward Igoe told KCRA-TV that deputies broke down a fence at the home where the discovery was made, “and subsequently (opened) its sliding glass door.”
“At that time, a drone was launched at the residence and it was discovered that it was there a male subjectwho appeared to be unresponsive at the residence,” Igoe said.
After the man was found with the drone, officers entered the home and found a woman, boy and girl shot to death, according to Igoe, KCRA-TV reported.
“Detectives believe this was a murder-suicide at the hands of the male subject,” the sheriff’s office told X.
While the relationships between the children and adults are not yet confirmed, Igoe shared that neighbors told investigators that the residence where the shooting occurred is home to a family of four, according to KCRA-TV.
“A response to something of this magnitude is always extremely difficult,” Igoe told KCRA-TV. “And honestly, as an agency, our only prayers are with the friends and family of those involved today.”
As of January 28, a medical examiner is still working to identify them adults and children while authorities investigate a possible motive for the shootings, the sacramento bee informed
It was unclear Wednesday, Jan. 28, whether responding officers encountered booby traps while clearing the home, which, according to public records reviewed by the newspaper, is owned by David Edward Vallerga Jr.58 i Lindsey Peralta Vallerga49.
Igoe told the paper that a man at the Rancho Cordova home “had several firearms registered in his name, as well as prior military service and possible military equipment.”
Local neighbor Suzanne Hanrahan he said the sacramento bee who knew the family who lived there, adding that the incident is “a tragedy”.
“Kids are nice,” Hanrahan offered. “Mom was nice.”
“I didn’t know the father almost at all,” Hanrahan also told the paper. “Sometimes I’d see him walking this German shepherd. But the kids play on that court, and so when I walk the dogs, the kids in that court would always run over and pet the dogs.”