Escondido Man Held in Killing of His Son, 15 : Shootings: Police say Jorge Jauregui Robles also wounded his wife in fracas at their apartment.

An Escondido man shot and killed his 15-year-old son and wounded his wife in the family’s apartment early Monday as the boy tried to stop his parents from fighting, police said.

Jorge Juaregui Robles, 39, was arrested minutes after the shootings when a neighbor whose truck he was attempting to steal held him for police, authorities said.

Robles’ 20-year-old daughter and his son’s 15-year-old girlfriend witnessed the shootings. Police say Robles thought he had killed everyone in the apartment.

“It appears that the father kind of flipped out and was going to wipe out the whole family. I think he thought he did,” Escondido Police Lt. John Wilson said.

Jorge Robles, a San Pasqual High School student, was pronounced dead at Palomar Medical Center about 6 a.m. with a gunshot wound in the chest.

Police said his father, who managed the 16-unit apartment complex where the family lived in the 300 block of West 13th Avenue, got home about 1 a.m. Monday and started to argue with his wife, 36-year-old Lydia Robles.

The argument moved into the bedroom, and, when the son tried to protect his mother, the father shot him with a .22-caliber revolver, Wilson said. He then shot his wife, hitting her in the side and elbow, then crashed through the ground-floor bedroom window and fled, Wilson said.

“I don’t know how specific he was (about who he shot). He just opened fire,” Wilson said. Lydia Robles was in stable condition Monday at Palomar Medical Center after emergency surgery, he added.

The shootings occurred about 2:50 a.m., Wilson said. After Robles crashed through the window, he hid the gun in some bushes at the apartment complex and ran to 9th Avenue and Centre City Parkway, about four blocks away, where he tried to steal a truck, Wilson said.

But, when the owner heard his vehicle start, he ran out and held onto Robles until police arrived. The man had no knowledge of the shootings, but Robles reportedly threatened his life while he was being held, Wilson said.

“He’s been flying off the handle lately. The wife was afraid of him,” Wilson said.

Neighbors described Robles as a jealous man with wild mood swings and a violent temper, but they said his son was a friendly boy who loved sports and helped his father maintain the tattered, crowded apartment complex.

“Sometimes he was normal, and sometimes he was half-crazy. He would get jealous and hit his own wife,” said Jorge Robledo, a neighbor, describing the father.

Robledo and other neighbors said Robles was slack about building repairs and paid his son to do some of the odd jobs.

Baltazar Ramirez, 12, who lives above the Robles’ apartment, said he often heard yelling coming from below and once saw Robles screaming at his wife in the parking lot and accusing her of seeing another man.

But Baltazar said the younger Robles was a “real nice guy” who took him and his little brother for occasional rides in the car.

Jayme Arner, principal of San Pasqual High School, said her staff remembered Jorge as a hard-working, pleasant-natured student, and his father as strict, formal and traditional.

“He was a very pleasant and respectful boy,” said football coach Gordon Marsh. “He was one of those kids who won’t look you right in the eye right away and kind of keep their head down.”

Marsh said George, who would have been a sophomore this fall, always showed up for football practice wearing gold jewelry that his father gave him and asked the coaches to hold it for him.

“I can say that it was a challenge for him academically at San Pasqual, and he would study hard in the tutorials and in study hall to maintain his eligibility for football and wrestling. It wasn’t something that came easy to him,” Marsh said.

Robles is being held on suspicion of murder and attempted murder, Wilson said.