2 Are Killed, 1 Wounded in Shooting

In a quiet city that usually sees one or two killings a year, a man and a woman were found shot to death and another woman was critically wounded Sunday in what police called a possible murder-suicide or triple murder attempt.

Police were summoned about 1:15 p.m. by a 15-year-old girl frantically reporting she had found three bodies, including that of her father, in the living room of the father’s second-story apartment in the 5300 block of Orangethorpe Avenue, said Sgt. Mark Yokoyama of the La Palma Police Department.

The father, identified as Nelson Nonato, 49, was apparently killed by one or more shots to the head, as was a woman identified as Sara Guevara, 31, of South Gate, Yokoyama said. Another female, also shot in the head, was taken to UC Irvine Medical Center. The woman, whose identity was not released pending notification of relatives, was not expected to live, Yokoyama said.

A large-caliber handgun was found at the scene and there were no signs of forced entry, burglary or struggle, Yokoyama said.

“We don’t know if it’s a murder-suicide or a triple homicide” attempt, he said.

Police said they did not know the relationships among the victims, but relatives of Guevara said she was Nonato’s former girlfriend and that the couple had a 2-year-old daughter together. The little girl, Natalie, was at the scene Sunday evening being cared for by family members.

Guevera’s relatives said the third woman might have been Nonato’s current girlfriend, but they did not know her name.

Ana Guevara, 19, Sara Guevara’s niece, said her aunt had not seen Nonato for about a month, since she discovered he had another girlfriend.

Yokoyama said police received a report of shots fired in the neighborhood about 2:30 a.m. Sunday, but officers who responded could not find the source of the gunfire. He said it was possible the shots had come from Nonato’s apartment, but said the officers were summoned by a neighbor on another street, not by anyone in Nonato’s building.

Pat Christenson, who lives below Nonato’s apartment with her husband, Marvin, said they heard three popping sounds about 2:30 a.m., a pause, then three more.

Christenson, 65, said she believed the shots might have been youngsters playing with firecrackers, but her husband said he recognized the sounds as gunfire. The couple said they did not call police because they could not determine the source of the noise.

“If we did call police, they wouldn’t know where to start” looking, said Marvin Christenson, 69.

Dolores Daugherty, 58, who lives across from Nonato, said she heard no gunfire. Later Sunday, she said, a woman who apparently was Nonato’s sister-in-law asked to use her telephone after becoming concerned that something was wrong at Nonato’s apartment.

Daugherty said the sister-in-law apparently summoned Nonato’s teen-age daughter to the scene. When the girl arrived, she “opened the door and started screaming,” Daugherty said.

Pat Christenson said that Nonato was a friendly neighbor with whom she had chatted from time to time but that she did not him know well.

Dozens of neighbors gathered in the building courtyard Sunday night as authorities removed the two bodies and evidence.