Two Women Slain; Deputies Kill Suspect : Crime: A mother and daughter are shot at point-blank range. Three hours later a man is fatally wounded by officers in a running gun battle.

A gunman suspected of shooting and killing his girlfriend and her mother at point-blank range in front of an apartment complex was shot and killed by sheriff’s deputies three hours later after a running gun battle down a tree-lined residential street, authorities said Wednesday.

No one else was injured in the gunfire, although the stucco exteriors of several small homes along the street were chipped by stray bullets.

One resident, Bill Abernathy, said he counted more than 30 shots in the neighborhood about two miles from where the women were slain and, thinking it was a drive-by shooting, grabbed his own shotgun.

Another neighbor, Frances Portias, said breathlessly, “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Authorities identified the women as Ngay Tran, 76, and her daughter, Kim Nguyen, 37. The suspect’s identity was not available. The motive for the shooting was unclear, but it may have been a domestic dispute, said Sgt. Dennis Casey of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.

A spokesman for the San Bernardino County coroner’s office said only that the two women were mother and daughter--and that the younger woman was the suspect’s girlfriend.

The first shootings occurred about 9:45 a.m. when the gunman apparently chased the two women out of an apartment in an unincorporated neighborhood of San Bernardino known as Little Mountain.

The man, barefoot and wearing only slacks, ran across the street, shoved the younger victim to the ground alongside a wooden fence, stood over her and fired his gun, Casey said. He ran back toward the apartment, where he shot and killed the second woman, Casey said.

Fred Smith, a telephone company employee who was working near the apartment, said he watched the gunman shoot his first victim once in the lower body and again in the face.

After running back across the street, the gunman “grabbed an older lady by the shirt, aimed point-blank at her head and fired again,” Smith told reporters.

A man who was repairing a roof several houses away said he heard the initial gunfire, turned and saw the killer running toward the older woman.

“She was just standing there, yelling and waving her arms,” said Mike Fraynd. “He ran up to within three feet of her, raised his gun and shot her in the head.”

Hours later, around 1 p.m., two sheriff’s plainclothes detectives in a car saw the barefoot suspect in another neighborhood, followed him and pulled up alongside.

When the detectives identified themselves, the suspect pulled a gun and started running.

It was unknown who fired first, Casey said, but both detectives opened fire and a police radio blurted that the suspect had reloaded his weapon.

Based on the damage to the front porch of at least one house, it appeared that shots were fired from the vehicle at the suspect as he ran down the sidewalk.

About 100 yards after the chase began, the gunman was shot and handcuffed, then pronounced dead by paramedics who arrived minutes later.

The shooting of the suspect was being investigated by officers of the San Bernardino Police Department, who said they needed to question “a multitude of witnesses” before offering their own report.