Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux said the killings were connected to the illicit drug trade, saying at a press briefing that, last week, deputies executed narcotic search warrants at the same home, located in the town of Goshen.
“We do believe that this is a targeted act of violence, not a random act of violence,” Boudreaux told reporters at the scene, adding that this was a “horrific massacre.”
‘Cartel-Style Execution’
Boudreaux said deputies responded to reports of multiple shots fired at the property at around 4 a.m. on Jan. 17. When they arrived, deputies found a total of six victims. One man who was still alive was taken to the hospital but later pronounced dead.
The sheriff said the infant and 17-year-old mother both had gunshot wounds to the head, with ABC citing Boudreaux as saying that “it was like a cartel-style execution.”
“We believe that this was a targeted family. We believe that there are gang associations involved in this scene, as well as potential narcotics investigations,” he told reporters on the scene.
Several others were shot in the head, including an elderly woman, Boudreaux later told the Los Angeles Times. There were two female survivors of the massacre who hid in a trailer on the property.
“I think it’s specifically connected to the cartel. The level of violence ... this was not your run-of-the-mill low-end gang member,” Boudreaux told the newspaper.
“If (they) are specifically shooting everyone in the head, they know what they are doing ... (and) they are comfortable with what they are doing,” he added.
The sheriff said two suspects have been identified and that there could be more as the investigation progresses.
