Palo Alto

Palo Alto Police Investigate Murder-Suicide of Elderly Men at Senior Complex

Palo Alto police are piecing together a rare event in this normally peaceful and affluent Silicon Valley city: The murder-suicide of two elderly men at a senior housing complex located next door to a Jewish Community Center.

On Friday, the Santa Clara County Coroner still had not identified the men - the alleged shooter in his 60s, and the 70s-something man he shot found in the office of the Alta Torre Senior Apartments on Fabian Way about 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday. A blue cloth covered the inside of the office on Friday morning, hiding some of the crime scene. And police were seeking search warrants to enter both men's apartments to see if their homes could yield any clues.

Police have not released many details about the homicide - the second in 2015 - including what the shooting was about. On Wednesday, police had covered up the license plate of a white Toyota that was towed away from the scene.

Police and firefighters rushed to the scene, as parents were picking up their children from the preschool at the Oshman Family JCC. "We couldn't get in," mother Fiona Huang said. "We were terrified. They wouldn't tell us what was happening."

Sgt. Brian Phillip did lay out these few details: Emergency crews got a 911 call alerting them a person needed medical assistance inside an elevator. When firefighters got there, they found a dead man in his 60s with a semi-automatic handgun on his lap. Officials determined the man died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Officers then found another dead man with multiple gunshot wounds inside a first-floor office. The man was described by police to be in his 70s.

NBC Bay Area's Peggy Bunker, Kristofer Noceda and Riya Bhattacharjee contributed to this report.

Contact Us