A 17-year-old mother and her 6-month-old baby among 6 killed in “targeted” attack on a family .
It is with great sadness that at the start of the new year, six people — including a 17-year-old mother and 6-month-old baby — were killed in an early Monday morning shooting at a home in central California, and authorities are looking for at least two suspects, sheriff officials said. Deputies responded around 3:30 a.m. to reports of multiple shots fired at the unincorporated Goshen mansion, just east of Visalia, the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office said. Officials responded within seven minutes of the 911 call, officials said.
Police Chief Mike Boudreaux told reporters: “There were actually reports that a gunman was active in the area because of the high number of shots fired.
Boudreaux said deputies found two dead on the street and a third shot dead on the doorstep of the mansion.
Three more victims were found in the home, including a man who was still alive but later died at the hospital, he said.
The sheriff said investigators were looking for at least two suspects. They believe there is a gang connection to the murders. The sheriff’s office conducted a drug-related search of the residence last week, Boudreaux said.
“We also believe this is not a random act of violence. We believe this is a family goal,” he said.
Two of the victims, the young mother and her child, were shot in the head, the sheriff said.
Samuel Pina said Monday that his teenage niece, Alissa Parraz, and her child, Nycholas Nolan Parraz, were among those killed.
“I can’t fathom what kind of monster would do this,” he told The Associated Press.
Pina said Parraz and her child were living with her father’s paternal family in Goshen, and that her father’s uncle, her father’s cousin, her grandmother and great-grandmother were also killed.
He said the family is in shock.
“It comes in big waves,” he said.
The sheriff’s office said the crime lab, forensics unit, homicide detective and gang detective were investigating the scene.
Goshen is a semi-rural community of about 3,000 residents 35 miles southeast of Fresno in the San Joaquin Agricultural Valley.
