Two children and two adults were found shot to death at a California home after police received a 911 call from someone saying they had opened fire inside and set up “booby traps” throughout the residence, according to authorities.
Detectives are investigating the Tuesday, January 27, incident at a Rancho Cordova home in Sacramento County as a murder-suicide, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement shared to X that evening.
The sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to an inquiry from Us Weekly on Wednesday, January 28.
Two 911 calls, including an initial call about the sound of gunshots, led homicide detectives to the Rancho Cordova residence the morning of January 27, according to ABC10.
A dispatcher told sheriff’s deputies that a second 911 caller told them, according to the Sacramento Bee, that “’I’m the shooter. I’m setting up booby traps and turning off the cellphone.’”
Law enforcement then evacuated at least five homes in the neighborhood of Kavala Ranch, where they later found four people dead inside a residence, the newspaper reported.
Sacramento County Sheriff’s spokesperson Sgt. Edward Igoe told KCRA-TV that deputies breached a fence at the home where the discovery was made, “and subsequently [opened] their sliding glass door.”
“At that point, a drone was launched into the residence, and it was discovered that there was one male subject, that appeared to be unresponsive down in the residence,” Igoe said.
After the man was found by the drone, deputies entered the house and found a woman, a boy and a girl had been shot to death, according to Igoe, KCRA-TV reported.
“Detectives believe this was a murder-suicide at the male subject’s hand,” the sheriff’s office said on X.
While the relationships between the children and adults are not yet confirmed, Igoe shared that neighbors told investigators that the residence where the gunfire unfolded is home to a family of four, according to KCRA-TV.
“A response to something of this magnitude is always extremely difficult,” Igoe told KCRA-TV. “And honestly, as an agency, just our prayers are with friends and families of those involved today.”
As of January 28, a coroner is continuing to work on identifying the adults and children as authorities investigate a potential motive for the shootings, the Sacramento Bee reported.
It was unclear Wednesday, January 28, if responding officers came across any booby traps as they cleared the home, which, according to public records viewed by the newspaper, is owned by David Edward Vallerga Jr., 58, and Lindsey Peralta Vallerga, 49.
Igoe told the newspaper that a man at the Rancho Cordova home “did have several firearms registered in his name, as well as prior military service and possible military equipment.”
Local resident Suzanne Hanrahan told the Sacramento Bee that she was familiar with the family who lived there, adding that the incident is “a tragedy.”
“The kids are nice,” Hanrahan offered. “The mother was nice.”
“I didn’t know the father hardly at all,” Hanrahan also told the newspaper. “I’d see him walking this German shepherd sometimes. But the kids play on that court and so when I walk the dogs, the kids from that court would always run over and pet the dogs.”
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