Goshen, California shooting: Child, teenage mother among 6 killed in ‘targeted’ attack on family home

Six people — including a 17-year-old mother and her 6-month-old baby — were killed in a shooting Monday morning at a home in central California, and authorities are looking for at least two suspects, sheriff’s officials said. Deputies responded around 3:30 a.m to reports of multiple shots fired at a residence in unincorporated Goshen, east of Visalia, the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office said. Officers responded within seven minutes of the 911 call, officials said.

“Actually the report was that there was an active shooter in the area because of the number of shots,” Sheriff Mike Boudreau told reporters.

Deputies found two victims dead outside and a third person shot in the doorway of the home, Boudreau said.

Three other victims were found inside the home, including a man who was still alive but later died in hospital, he said.

The sheriff said investigators are looking for at least two suspects. They believe the murders are gang-related. The sheriff’s office executed a drug-related search warrant at the residence last week, Boudreau said.

“We also believe that this was not a random act of violence. We believe this was a targeted family,” he said.

Two victims, a young mother and her child, were shot in the head, the sheriff said.

Samuel Pina said Monday that his teenage granddaughter, Alice Paraz, and her child, Nicholas Nolan Paraz, were among those killed.

“I can’t imagine what kind of monster would do that,” he told the Associated Press.

Pina said Paraz and her child lived with her paternal family in Geshen, and that her father’s uncle, father’s cousin, and her grandmother and great-grandmother were also killed.

He said the family is in shock.

“It comes in big waves,” he said.

The sheriff’s office said its crime lab, forensics unit, homicide detectives and gang detectives are investigating.

Goshen is a semi-rural community of about 3,000 residents 35 miles southeast of Fresno in the agricultural San Joaquin Valley.