2 Shot to Death, 2 Hurt at Child’s Party

A birthday party for a 4-year-old girl erupted in a burst of gunfire, leaving two men--including the girl’s father--dead, two seriously injured and the suspected killer on the run, authorities said Monday.

Women and children cowered in fear of their lives as the gunman unloaded his weapon into the crowded residence. San Diego County sheriff’s deputies said the killer is believed to have fled to Mexico.

The shooting occurred at 10:50 p.m. Sunday in an apartment complex in the 700 block of B Street in this rural community in northeastern San Diego County, as party-goers began winding down a daylong celebration, witnesses told authorities.

The suspect, identified by the Sheriff’s Department as Jose Angel Solario, 27, a laborer who lives here, allegedly got into an argument with several men at the party about “his manners and the proper decorum for a party where women and children were present,” said Sheriff’s Lt. Bill Baxter.

Solario left the apartment with his wife and children at 10:30 but returned by himself and allegedly began firing a handgun.

The dead were identified by the county coroner’s office and a Sheriff’s Department spokesman as German Aviles-Amaya, 28, who hosted the party for his daughter, and Ventura Aviles-Holguien, 21, his nephew, who lived about two blocks away.

Injured in the gunfire were Carlos Holguien-Amavizca, 30, and Jose Aviles-Amaya, 25. A spokesman for Palomar Memorial Hospital in Escondido said both were in critical but stable condition Monday after surgery.

Early Monday, the sheriff’s tactical unit surrounded a mobile home park where they believed Solario had holed up and arrested a man whom they later released, saying it was a case of mistaken identity.

Baxter said Solario was believed to have headed for Mexico. Investigators have questioned his family here.