Man Shoots Family In California

[Gunny]

Tragedy today in California.

LOS ANGELES – A man opened fire on his stepdaughter's family inside a California restaurant Saturday, killing her husband and 6-year-old son, critically wounding her and another child, and then fatally shooting himself, police said.

The 56-year-old man arrived at the Del Taco restaurant in San Bernardino on a bike at about 1 p.m., walked over to a table and fired several shots at his 29-year-old stepdaughter, her 33-year-old husband, and their sons, ages 5 and 6, San Bernardino police Lt. Jarrod Burguan said.

"There was a very brief exchange of words, then he opened fire on them at near point-blank range," Burguan said.

The woman's husband was declared dead at the restaurant and the 6-year-old died at a hospital, San Bernardino Fire Department spokesman Steve Tracey said.

The woman and the 5-year-old boy were in critical condition at Loma Linda University Medical Center, Tracey said. The names of the victims and the shooter weren't released.

The woman's mother who was married to the gunman died several years ago, and investigators were probing what ties the gunman and his stepdaughter may still have had as they sought a motive for the shooting, Burguan said.

Police said between five and seven employees and several other customers were in the fast food restaurant, but the gunman clearly walked in seeking the four victims and no one else was injured.

Bullet holes marked the walls and glass covered the floor.

Owners of nearby businesses said horrified patrons streamed out of the restaurant after the shots were fired.

"I saw some people yelling and all of a sudden I heard 'boom, boom, boom, boom'," Jorge Garcia, who works at a recycling trailer in the same parking lot as the restaurant, told the Riverside Press-Enterprise. "I saw two employees run out of the employee door and then I saw eight or 10 people run out of the restaurant and across the street."

The gunman, who is from Lancaster in northern Los Angeles County, had an extensive criminal record dating back to 1972 that included assault with a deadly weapon and a restraining order taken out by a co-worker.

Despite living an hour's drive away, the man had many ties to San Bernardino and once lived just a few blocks from the restaurant, Burguan said.

Burguan said the attack on the family was one of the worst crime scenes he could remember in San Bernardino, a city of about 200,000 people some 60 miles east of Los Angeles.

"This was something else," he said.

[kdryan]

You know, when I see a headline like this (I didn't read the article) my first reaction is to just pass it by. To be perfectly honest, I just don't want to read another story about kids being killed. It's a tragedy, yes and it should never happen, but I can't even let my kids watch the news because of crap like this and honestly, it's not something that we need to know about, because it doesn't concern us. Every morning (and only in the morning for some reason) there is one or two stories about this kind of thing. There's nothing we can do to change what has happened and there is no lesson to be learned as a parent here.

So I would just as well rather never know it happened, thank you very much...

[Jeremy+3]

Something similar happened here recently, worst shooting here since about five years ago when a man shot his family.

[Gunny]

Originally Posted by Jeremy+3

Something similar happened here recently, worst shooting here since about five years ago when a man shot his family.

Where did this take place?

[Jeremy+3]

Cumbria, oh, and the previous one was the Foster family in Shropshire.

[meand3]

What family feud can so bad that you decide to wipe out an entire family?

[Gunny]

Originally Posted by meand3

What family feud can so bad that you decide to wipe out an entire family?

Perhaps mental illness.

[Jeremy+3]

Originally Posted by Gunny

Perhaps mental illness.

He had recently become bankrupt and was about to have all their possessions repossessed, he didn't want them to know, so he shot them. My son went to school with his daughter, she was talking to people on MSN when she was shot.

[www777]

How unhappy and sad must he have been to destroy other lives just like that? His life is over and the little 6 year old's has just begun it is just not right. Unfortunately we also see these cirmes in our country and it breaks your heart!

[lovelymum]

I am so sad to hear about this.