Slaying of 4 Could Be Linked to Drugs

San Diego homicide detectives on Monday were investigating several possible motives, including drug dealing, for the Sunday morning shooting in an East San Diego residence that left four people dead and a fifth hospitalized in serious condition.

Two men and a woman died at the scene, police said, and a third man was taken to Sharp Memorial Hospital where he died later. Three of the dead were tentatively identified, authorities said, but the name of the third person was being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

The San Diego County coroner’s office Monday identified two of the dead as Miguel Martinez Vasquez, 20, and Enrique Mejia Beltran, 25.

Police refused, for security reasons, to disclose where the wounded victim was hospitalized.

Homicide detectives on Monday continued the search for clues at the shooting scene, a home in the 3400 block of Hasty Street, and police spokesman Bill Robinson said investigators had received some promising telephone tips about why the crime was committed.

“I know we’re getting some calls from the public and homicide investigators are following up on some leads that have developed as a result of these calls,” said Robinson.

Homicide Sgt. Hank Olais said that one of the theories police are investigating is that the killings could have occurred during a robbery.

Neighbors on Sunday had said that one of the victims, sprawled out on the front porch, called for help and moaned in Spanish that he had been robbed. The home, which had its front windows still covered by white makeshift curtains, had been ransacked, added Robinson.

Olais also said the shootings could have been “drug related,” although he declined to say whether any illegal narcotics were found inside the house.

Police arrived at the home about 1 a.m. Sunday after neighbors reported hearing shots and then discovered the shooting victims lying inside the house.

The coroner’s office said the victims died of multiple gunshot wounds. Although a preliminary report did not indicate that any of the victims had been shot in the head, a deputy coroner on Monday said at least one of the people was shot in the head.

The surviving victim was in serious condition with a gunshot wound to the stomach.

All the victims were described as Latinos in their 20s.

Neighbors living around the quiet, middle-class section of College Grove were still stunned Monday by the quadruple murders. Some said they had suspected drug activity was going on inside the home, while others said they believed the home might have been a hiding place for illegal aliens.

“The neighborhood was quiet until they moved in,” said Elizabeth Lara, 24, one neighbor who suspected drug activity in the home. “People would come out with packages and go in with packages. People coming back and forth. People in the neighborhood kind of suspected something was going on.”

Lara added that a lot of people driving vehicles with Mexican license plates would stop in front of the home, enter the dwelling and leave. On the morning of the shooting, Lara said, she was dozing when she heard what she thought was someone pounding on a door.

“I thought someone was trying to get in,” she said.

Another neighbor, who declined to be identified, said: “There’s something fishy whenever you see people get out of their cars, go in the house and come out a few minutes later.”

Mary Platter said she was still in shock over the slayings.

“I’ve been here 35 years and this is the first time anything like this has happened of such consequence,” Platter said. “It just doesn’t seem possible.”

Neighbors said the people who were renting the home since August were mostly Spanish-speaking and kept pretty much to themselves.

The four homicides, just four days before the new year, marked the worst multiple murder in San Diego in 1986.