A man in his 80s killed three of his family members in a Granada Hills home before killing himself Saturday night, officials said.
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The Los Angeles Police Department received a call at 6:50 p.m. about a shooting on Lerdo Avenue, where officers found three victims — a woman in her 80s and a man and a woman in their 40s — said Blanca Lopez, a lieutenant in LAPD’s robbery-homicide division. LAPD officers also found the body of a man in his 80s who appeared to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
“They all appear to be family,” Lopez said. “This is an isolated incident.”
Officers were admitted to the house by a woman, who directed them to the bodies, officials said. Lopez couldn’t say whether the woman was also a family member.
During a briefing for reporters, LAPD Capt. Kelly Muniz said that “the only positive point is that you at least have one witness who has survived this incident.”
“I don’t know how much more terrifying and horrific of a scene it could be,” Muniz said.
The Lerdo Avenue home is in a neighborhood of large houses in a hilly area above the 118 Freeway near Zelzah Park.
Richard and Cheryl Asperger, who live nearby, said they were surprised to hear about the shooting when they returned home around 9:30 p.m. as helicopters circled overhead.
“This is a nice neighborhood. To think that a triple homicide or a shootout can happen, that’s not what we moved here for,” said Richard, 62.
The couple have lived in the neighborhood for a decade and said they’ve seen an increase in crime lately, including a recent shooting at a home near theirs in which no one died.
But Cheryl, 73, said, “These things can happen anywhere” when guns are as prevalent as they are.
“Everyone loses their temper sometimes. But people are too used to picking up a gun,” Richard said.
“You know damn well the neighbors are going to say, ‘He’s such a nice guy; he used to take our trash cans out for us.’”
