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Man Kills Two, Then Himself in Stanton Home : Crime: A 4-month-old boy and a woman are shot to death. Their assailant, who lived with them, takes his own life, police say.

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TIMES STAFF WRITERS

A man shot and killed his female roommate and a 4-month-old boy before killing himself with the same weapon Saturday afternoon, jolting neighbors in the midst of Christmas celebrations, police and residents said.

Police found the bodies of the baby boy, a 22-year-old woman and a man whose age was estimated at about 20, all dead from shotgun blasts, said Sheriff’s Lt. William J. Francis. The three remained unidentified Saturday night in what police officially classified as a double-murder and suicide, Francis said.

About 2 p.m., neighbors on the street of modest, single-family homes, apartments and small businesses said they heard two gunshots from the room the three shared, followed by a third shot a short time later.

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“I heard a couple of blasts,” said Hector Lopez, 31, who lives next door in the 8200 block of Cerritos Avenue. “I went outside (the house) and I saw blood splattered all over the window” at the rear of the home.

Lopez said he called out to his wife, who telephoned police, but said he was afraid to enter the home because he could not tell if the gunman was still alive.

The three victims lived in one bedroom of a three-bedroom home, according to Nicholas Munoz, 39, who said he owns the small, frame stucco dwelling. Munoz, who said he and his family were not at home at the time of the shooting, rented a bedroom and bathroom to the victims for $280 a month.

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Through an interpreter, Munoz said he did know the relationship between them. Police said the couple were not married, and did not know whether either was the parent of the dead child.

Munoz said that the man, an upholsterer, kept to himself and that he tried to keep the woman confined to the house. “She didn’t like that,” Munoz said. The woman appeared to shrink from the man when he approached, Munoz said.

Several days ago, Munoz said, the woman left the home, but that someone brought her back earlier Saturday. Munoz said he didn’t know if the woman was returned to the house against her will.

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Munoz said one of his children had recently seen the man with a handgun in his waistband.

Lopez described the gunman as “a real jealous man. In Mexico, we call it machismo.”

Neighbors who had been celebrating Christmas gathered on Lopez’s lawn Saturday as sheriff’s deputies and county coroner’s investigators combed the house behind yellow police tape. As of Saturday evening, the bodies had not been removed from the home.

“What a Christmas, huh?” Lopez asked.

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