A 17-year-old mother and her 6-month-old baby were among 6 people killed in a shooting, allegedly linked to drug trafficking, that occurred early this morning in a home invasion in Goshen, a semi-rural, mostly Latino community in Goshen County. Tulare, in central California.
In the same place of the massacre, a search was carried out last week in which drugs and weapons were seized, and one person was arrested. In total, three women and three men were killed. Police are searching for two gunmen suspected in the fatal shooting.
The crimes took place at a residence located on Harvest Road east of Highway 99 at around 3:30 am on January 16.
Authorities were alerted to the shooting when neighbors were awakened by the shooting and began calling 911 for help.
Upon arrival, Tulare Sheriff’s Department officers found two people dead on the street and another at the door of the residence. Three more victims were found inside the home, including a man who was alive but later died at a hospital.
The mother and her baby died from the impacts they received in the head, and were found in a ditch outside the house. The baby was in the arms of her young mother.
Most of the victims were shot in the head. An elderly woman was fatally shot while she was sleeping in her bed. Two women survived the tragedy by hiding in a trailer.
“We started getting multiple reports of shootings. In fact, one of them was telling us there was an active shooter in the area,” Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux said at a news conference.
This is how 7 minutes after receiving the calls for help, the sheriff’s agents arrived at the site of the tragedy.
Sheriff Boudreaux said the first find was the first two victims lying in the street, prompting them to call for more police backup.
“We found a third victim at the door, and unfortunately we discovered multiple victims who had been injured to bring the total to 6, including the one we found alive who died at the hospital.”
The Tulare Sheriff announced that they have two suspects in their sights, who are wanted in connection with the shooting, and it is presumed that they entered the property stealthily to carry out the criminal acts, since they were thus captured on the cameras of property surveillance.
“We believe this was a targeted act of violence, not a random occurrence. It was very personal and we thought they wanted to leave a message,” he told reporters. But he also added that they found associations with the gangs at the scene.
Speaking to LA TimesSheriff Boudreaux said he thought the shooting was tied to a drug cartel.
“The level of violence was not that of an ordinary gang member,” he said.
“The ‘shape and speed’ of the killings suggest that the men had experience in killing. Many of the victims were shot in the head, including the older woman, who was found on a bed inside the house.”
Last week, sheriff’s deputies had conducted a drug search of the home where the shooting occurred, which resulted in an arrest and the seizure of weapons, marijuana and methamphetamine.
Authorities have so far not released the names and ages of the victims, but said everything seemed to indicate that most were members of the same family.
Goshen is a community of about 3,000 to 5,000 residents, 35 miles south of Fresno in the San Joaquin Valley.
Anyone with information can call the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office at 559-733-6218.
County Supervisor Eddie Valero said the deaths from the shooting have been anyone’s worst nightmare.
“These senseless acts of violence, especially against infants, children and young adults, have no place in our communities,” Valero said in a statement.
According to what was published by the LA Times, Tulare County has served as a haven for bootleggers since at least the 1970s; and the region has played a very large role in the transnational business of moving drugs from Mexico to other markets in the United States.
“In the most recent decades, it has been home to the production of methamphetamine and the cultivation of marijuana, both legal and illegal,” they posted.