Man Kills Daughter, 8, Himself

A Boyle Heights man despondent over breaking up with his wife returned home for his birthday party Wednesday, then shot and killed his 8-year-old daughter before turning the gun on himself in front of horrified family members, authorities said.

Carlos Bernal, 43, and his daughter, Ruby, were pronounced dead at County-USC Medical Center, each of a gunshot wound to the head.

Bernal’s estranged wife, Mary Anne, and two other daughters saw Bernal shoot himself, but were not hurt, Los Angeles police said.

“It’s one of those sad, unfortunate things that happens,” Lt. Richard Iddings, a detective with the LAPD’s abused child unit, said. “He had been very despondent because of the breakup. . . . You can never judge what despondent people will do.”

Neighbors described the Bernals as a happy couple, with no outward signs of trouble.

However, Mary Anne Bernal told detectives of “constant family disputes,” but did not elaborate, Iddings said.

The two split up a week or two ago, according to police and neighbors, and she reportedly spoke of obtaining a restraining order to keep her husband away from the two-story apartment building on Marengo Street where the family lived.

But Iddings said there was no indication that Mary Anne Bernal sought the restraining order, nor had she begun divorce proceedings.

Carlos Bernal had been living with a friend in Eagle Rock since the breakup, Iddings said. With Bernal’s 43rd birthday coming on Wednesday, his wife invited him to the apartment for a celebration. Someone had baked cupcakes.

The Bernals and their three children sat and chatted for an hour or so after he arrived about 8:30 a.m., police said.

Then Carlos Bernal took 8-year-old Ruby into a back bedroom “to talk.” Minutes later, Mary Anne Bernal and the other girls heard a gunshot and rushed into the bedroom.

“And they saw him put the gun to his head and shoot himself,” Iddings said. “That’s when they found the 8-year-old.”

It was not clear why Carlos Bernal, who police said used a .38-caliber handgun, chose Ruby.

The other two children, 7 and 12, ran screaming from the apartment to an interior patio area, neighbors said.

Police and ambulances arrived a short time later.

The Bernals managed the apartment building, which sits on a wide street facing the San Bernardino Freeway. Neighbors said they were shocked by the shootings.

“They were a happy couple, always doing things with their kids,” said a woman who lives upstairs from the Bernals’ unit. She asked that her name not be used.

A 9-year-old girl who used to play with Ruby said the child often spoke of missing her father.

“She was his best, best daughter,” the girl said.