Firefighters in Maywood, California, discovered a married couple and their young son shot to death inside a burning home early Saturday, authorities said.
The LA County Fire Department reached the residence on the 5000 block of E 61st Street around 2:20 a.m. And quickly called for backup as flames and heavy smoke engulfed the structure, according to the LA County Sheriff’s Office. After crews knocked down the blaze, they entered the home and found three bodies in a bedroom.
The victims were a husband and wife, both in their late 40s, and their biological son, who was under 10 years old. All three had suffered apparent gunshot wounds, the sheriff’s office said.
“The incident appears to be domestic violence in nature. The two adults are married, and the child is their biological child,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. Investigators have not publicly identified the family or disclosed which adult may have fired the weapon.
Video shared on the Citizen app captured firefighters working on the roof of the single-family residence as thick smoke poured from the building. The footage showed the intensity of the early-morning fire that drew emergency crews to the working-class neighborhood southeast of downtown Los Angeles.
The sheriff’s office has not released a suspected motive or timeline for the shootings, and it remains unclear whether the fire was set deliberately or began through other means. Homicide detectives and arson investigators are working jointly to determine the sequence of events that left the family dead.
Maywood, a city of roughly 25,000 residents, has seen violent crime decline in recent years but remains among the more economically stressed communities in LA County. The Saturday morning discovery marked one of the most disturbing domestic violence cases in the small municipality in recent memory.
Authorities have not announced any arrests and said no suspects are being sought outside the home. The medical examiner’s office will conduct autopsies to confirm the causes of death and establish whether the victims died from gunshot wounds or smoke inhalation.
The sheriff’s office asked anyone with information about the family or circumstances leading to the deaths to contact homicide investigators. Officials said additional details would be released as the investigation progresses.
