A 17-year-old mother and her 6-month-old baby were among six found dead at a California home where a shooting took place early Monday morning.
The Tulare County Sheriff’s Office said the mass shooting occurred at an address on Harvest Avenue in Goshen, California around 3:30 a.m. Monday. Authorities are searching for two suspects and believe the crime to be related to recent cartel activity.
The person who reported the shooting “thought an active shooter was in the area because of the amount of shots being heard,” Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux told reporters.
Deputies found two victims dead in the street and a third person fatally shot in the doorway of the residence, Boudreaux said.
Three more victims were found inside the home, including a man who was still alive but later died at a hospital, he said.
The teen mother and her baby were both shot in the head, according to Boudreaux.
The sheriff’s office conducted a narcotics-related search warrant at the residence last week, Boudreaux said. “We also believe this was not a random act of violence. We believe this was a targeted family,” he said.
A Tulare County sheriff’s spokesperson told CNN that authorities believe the massacre to be a “cartel-style execution,” due to characteristics typically associated with drug cartel killings, including a heightened level of brutality and sophistication.
As day broke, officers remained on the scene and the investigation is ongoing. Two family members were able to survive the deadly shooting, with Boudreaux saying investigators remain puzzled as to how they managed to escape the massacre.
