4 Children See Father Shoot Wife, Himself

As their four children watched from the back seat, a North Hollywood man shot his wife and himself to death Thursday in a parked car in Canoga Park, the Los Angeles Police Department reported.

The children--two boys and two girls--were unhurt but “in shock,” Detective William Gaida said.

The names of the victims were withheld until relatives could be notified. He was 32, a native of El Salvador, and she was 30 and originally from Mexico, police said.

The dead man’s brother told police that the couple had been arguing since Wednesday about his drug abuse problem and unemployment, Gaida said.

The shooting occurred in the late afternoon in a car owned by the man’s brother, police said. The car was parked in a carport behind an apartment building in the 21100 block of Saticoy Street, police said.

The man had been arrested about two weeks ago on suspicion of wife-beating, Gaida said.

The man’s brother told police the woman had come to stay with him Wednesday night in his Canoga Park apartment, apparently because she had been arguing with her husband, Gaida said.