A man and three children in the Northern California city of Clearlake were found fatally shot Sunday in what investigators believe is a triple murder-suicide, according to the Clearlake Police Department.
At about 12:45 p.m., officers responded to reports of a male firing shots in the 4700 block of Yarrington Court, police said. A 25-year-old woman told arriving officers she had been at a home on Yarrington with her 39-year-old husband, Ricardo Lopez, and their four children, and for unknown reasons Lopez began firing a handgun outside the house, police said. The woman ran to get help.
When officers went to the home, they found Lopez and three of the children, ages 9 months to 4 years, dead of gunshot wounds, police said.
The fourth and eldest child, a 5-year-old, was found alive with a gunshot wound to the chest and taken to a hospital in stable condition, police said.
Clearlake is about 109 miles north of San Francisco.
Anyone with information about the shooting should contact Detective Leonardo Flores at 707-994-8251 or by email at lflores@clearlakepd.org.
