After Shooting Sister-in-Law, Wife’s Lover, Man Kills Self : Deaths: The 31-year-old gunman smashed into his estranged spouse’s Fullerton apartment through a window. She and their child, home at the time, were not injured.
FULLERTON — A 31-year-old man broke into his estranged wife’s apartment late Friday night, shot his sister-in-law to death and critically wounded his wife’s boyfriend before killing himself, police said Saturday.
The gunman, identified as Carlos Jose Delgado, smashed through a living room window at 11:17 p.m. into the apartment in the 1800 block of East Wilshire Avenue, said police Sgt. Steve Matson.
Once inside, Delgado shot his sister-in-law, Ana Arauz Velasquez, 38, several times in the torso, police said. She died at the scene. Also shot several times in the chest was 23-year-old Juan Jose Ceballos of Fullerton, who is in extremely critical condition at UCI Medical Center in Orange.
Delgado’s estranged wife, Gioconda Reyes, 30, and their 7-year-old daughter were inside the apartment at the time but were not injured. Police said they do not know whom the gunman intended to shoot or what his motivation was.
Reyes and Ceballos were watching television in the living room, police said, when Delgado broke through a window of the second-story apartment.
“I was just walking in and saw him break the glass out (and) climb into the window. Then I heard gunshots,†said neighbor Monda Morgan. “I hit the lights, got down on the floor, then called 911. I was shaking so badly I couldn’t talk. I thought he had killed the entire family.â€
Neighbor David Benson, 30, drove up just seconds after the shootings and was parking his car when he said he saw the gunman run past him.
“He looked panicked,†Benson said. “He had something in his hand, but I thought it was keys. I just went inside and didn’t know anything was wrong until I heard sirens.â€
Police said that after the shootings, Delgado, who cut himself as he was breaking through the apartment window, left a trail of blood as he ran from the complex. He crossed nearby Chapman Avenue, and ran into an alley where he shot himself in the head with a .380-caliber semiautomatic handgun.
Police and neighbors said there had not been any previous problems at the one-bedroom apartment shared by Reyes, Velasquez and the child. Neighbors at the small, 18-unit apartment complex said Ceballos stayed at the apartment occasionally.
Morgan tried to comfort Reyes after the shooting but said the woman was inconsolable.
“She was screaming,†Morgan said. “She was very, very upset.â€
Morgan, who regularly baby-sits Reyes’ daughter, said the couple had been separated for many years. The neighbor said she was under the impression that the family had been “hiding†from Delgado since moving into the complex last October.
“The little girl said she didn’t visit her father because he gets mean,†Morgan said. “I don’t think he knew where they lived. I feel so sorry for the little girl.â€
Morgan said her 8-year-old daughter and Reyes’ daughter were playmates and that her daughter had been in the apartment where the shooting occurred only hours before.
“This is an awful experience,†said a shaken Morgan, her eyes swollen from crying. “I really feel like moving away from here right now. I never thought something like this could happen here. Why did it happen here?â€
Relatives of Ceballos, who sustained several gunshot wounds in the upper torso, held a vigil at the hospital Saturday. They declined to discuss the shooting.
Employees at the Spaghetti Factory in Fullerton, where Reyes has worked for more than two years, said they had heard about the shooting but were unaware of any problems in the woman’s life.
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