Man Dies After Rampage Through Two Houses

The peaceful afternoon in an affluent neighborhood was shattered Sunday when a shirtless, barefoot man broke into two houses, tore off his trousers while shouting for help, dived through a window, then hopped a fence and died in a pool of blood outside a third home, police said.

Authorities officially termed the incident a suspicious death. But for residents near the Los Coyotes Country Club in the 5600 block of Fox Hills Drive and the condominiums in the 5700 block of Tahoe Circle, it was at least as bizarre as it was suspicious.

“I haven’t seen that many police in one time in my life,” said Eugene C. Delport, who lives on Tahoe Circle, across the street from where the body was found in a neighborhood of expensive homes.

It appeared that the man, identified as Raymond Rene Duran, 22, of La Mirada, was not injured before he burst into the first home on Fox Hills Drive about 1:15 p.m. Duran was identified from fingerprints.

An autopsy was scheduled for today to determine the cause of death.

Duran’s behavior “was rather bizarre activity for someone who would not be under the influence of some type of drug,” Buena Park Police Lt. Patrick Black said.

Black said the incident began when the frenzied, shirtless Duran appeared in the rear yard of a Fox Hills Drive home and pounded on a sliding glass door, yelling for the occupants to call 911.

He forced his way into the house by breaking the glass door, ripped off his pants, ran through the house and out the front door onto Fox Hills Drive. A woman and her children in the home were shocked but untouched, police said.

Duran continued to another house a few doors away, where no one was home. He broke in by smashing another window, Black said.

The owner of that home, who asked not to be identified, said in an interview that he was dining at a restaurant when he learned that his home had been broken into.

“When we arrived home it was over, but it was still nerve-racking,” the homeowner said. “He ran through the foyer, through the den, through the game room and dove through the back window, breaking three of the windows.”

Duran apparently “cut his jugular vein when crashing through the windows (to leave the home) and left a lot of blood outside my rear window,” the homeowner said.

After Duran leaped a back-yard fence, “it seemed as if he attempted to get into our neighbor’s house, the people behind us, because there was blood all over her back door,” the homeowner said.

Duran’s body was found in a pool of blood at the side of that home, a condominium on Tahoe Circle, police said.

Police searched the area but could find no vehicle or other clothing belonging to Duran.