2 dead, 1 injured after apparent murder-suicide in Valley Village
One woman was killed and another critically injured Monday in a Valley Village apartment complex, where police say a man apparently cut one of the women with a hatchet and shot both of them before turning the gun on himself.
Officers responded to the 12400 block of Weddington Street about 10:30 a.m. after receiving a call about a domestic violence incident involving someone armed with a gun, said Los Angeles police Sgt. Frank Preciado.
When officers arrived at the apartment complex, Preciado said, they heard two gunshots. A third shot was fired as they got out of their patrol car.
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When officers reached the unit, they found one woman inside who was dead of a gunshot wound, Preciado said. She also had a cut on her body “from a hatchet that was there,” he said.
The officers also found the body of a man with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Preciado said.
A second woman, described as a neighbor “responding to all the screaming” from the first victim, had also been shot and was critically wounded, Preciado said. She was treated by paramedics at the scene and taken to a hospital. Her condition was unknown Monday afternoon.
A police officer also was injured. Preciado said it was unclear what had happened, but the minor injuries were “not as a result of any gunfire or use of force with the suspect.”
Investigators recovered the gun and hatchet at the scene, Preciado said. Police are still trying to piece together the motive, the relationship between the man and woman who died, and whether there had been any previous incidents at the address, he added.
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