2 killed in possible murder-suicide in Huntington Beach

A man and woman died in what police were investigating as a possible murder-suicide in Huntington Beach Sunday evening.

A resident in a home on the 9500 block of Kensington Drive reported the shooting at about 6 p.m., Huntington Beach police spokeswoman Jessica Cuchilla said. Officers found a man and woman with gunshot wounds when they arrived.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene. The woman later died at a hospital.

Their identities were withheld pending the notification of loved ones. Police did not immediately release further information about the shooting but said there did not appear to be any lingering threat to the public.

Tori Athey’s home is connected to the shared courtyard where the shooting took place. She and other nearby residents described the woman who died as the victim, and said she had lived in that community her entire life.

The woman was raising two middle school-aged sons, resident Catherine Kennedy said. She had just seen them playing together in one of the community’s playgrounds hours before the killing.

Neighbors have stepped in to make sure the woman’s children are being taken care of, Athey said.

She described the woman as an artist who took on seasonal work to make ends meet. She had just helped her son build a diorama for a school project, and recently gifted Athey with a garden gnome made out of resin. The latter was both a replacement for an ornament broken by the artist’s two terriers and a chance to work with a new medium.

“She would always deck this whole place out for the holidays,” Athey said. “She did everything to make things special for her sons.”

The man who died was not a resident of that neighborhood, Cuchilla said. Authorities did not specify how long he had known the woman.

A diorama created for a neighbor’s child by the woman shot and killed in Huntington Beach on Sunday.

(Eric Licas)

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