Coroner identifies 3 of 4 victims killed in shooting rampage in the San Fernando Valley
LOS ANGELES (FOX 11) - Officials with the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office identified three of the four victims killed Thursday when a gunman allegedly went on a shooting rampage in the San Fernando Valley.
Carlos I. Zaragoza, 56, and Carlos Pierre Zaragoza, 33, were fatally shot at their apartment in Canoga Park. Azucena Lepe, 45, was fatally shot at a gas station in North Hollywood.
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The name of the fourth victim, who was fatally shot on a bus in Van Nuys, is being withheld pending family notification. He was a man in his 50s.
Gerry Dean Zaragoza, 26, was arrested in connection to the shooting spree.
The first shooting occurred about 1:50 a.m. Thursday at an apartment in the 21000 block of Roscoe Boulevard, near DeSoto Avenue, in Canoga Park, police said. Paramedics pronounced Zaragoza's father and brother dead at the scene and took his mother, a woman in her 50s, to a hospital in stable condition, according to police. The woman was shot in an arm, according to reports from the scene.
The second shooting occurred about 2:30 a.m. at a gas station in the 6700 block of Vineland Avenue, near Vanowen Street. Two people who worked at the gas station were shot. They were taken to the hospital where Lepe was pronounced dead. The other victim, an adult male, was listed in critical condition, police said.
Police said Zaragoza was acquainted with the woman. Reports from the scene indicated she may have been the suspect's ex-girlfriend.
Around 7:20 a.m., an attempted robbery believed to have been committed by Zaragoza occurred outside a bank at Sherman Way and Topanga Canyon Boulevard in Canoga Park, police said. The suspect allegedly pulled a handgun on a man about 40 years old, but he fled when he realized the victim had no money, police said.
At about 1:50 p.m., a person was fatally shot aboard an Orange Line bus at Victory Boulevard and Woodley Avenue in Van Nuys, and a suspect generally matching the description of Zaragoza was seen running from the scene.
"He didn't even talk to his last victim," LAPD Capt. Billy Hayes, commander of the LAPD's Robbery-Homicide Division, said at a Thursday afternoon news conference. "He's getting off the bus and he turns and shoots the person. It doesn't look like there was any interaction between them."
Around 2 p.m., Zaragoza was spotted in Canoga Park, about seven miles from the location of the bus shooting. He was taken into custody after "a small use of force" near the intersection of Canoga Avenue and Gault Street, according to Hayes.
A motive for the shooting rampage was not immediately known.
CNS contributed to this report.