Man in Slayings Had Abuse Arrest : Crime: Police also say they had responded to a domestic violence call. He shot his wife to death before committing suicide.

A man who shot and killed his estranged wife in front of the couple’s three children and then committed suicide was arrested for spousal abuse in 1990, and police responded to a domestic violence call at the family’s home just four months ago, authorities said Tuesday.

Police said they do not know whether Hong Tam Ly, 48, was convicted or had undergone counseling for spousal abuse after the 1990 incident. But authorities reported that officers responded to the family home in December after receiving a 911 domestic violence call. Ly was not arrested then but police declined to say why.

Ly, who had been separated from his wife, Luong Le, 39, for about one month, became violent when he visited her Windsor Road house Monday in the hope of patching up the relationship, authorities said.

“He pushed his way inside the house while his wife and two youngest children were at home,” police spokesman Chahe Keuroghelian said.

“An argument ensued and the wife locked herself and the kids in a bedroom for safety, but he managed to get in there and that’s when he pulled out the gun and threatened to kill her,” said Keuroghelian, adding that Ly also threatened the youngest children, a 6-year-old son and a 10-year-old daughter.

Police said the couple’s 16-year-old daughter returned home in the midst of the argument, and with the help of several cousins and friends escorted the mother to a parked car outside.

As the daughter went inside to get her two siblings, Ly came outside and began chasing his wife, police said. When the children came outside they saw their father fire one shot that missed, then another that hit Le in the back of the head, police said. The woman’s body was found face down in the street.

Ly then walked back into the house and shut the door, and the children heard a gunshot seconds later, police said. Believing the man might have barricaded himself inside, police evacuated the neighborhood and summoned a sheriff’s SWAT team for help, but Ly was found dead in a bedroom when officers stormed the house.

The children and other family members were seen emptying the family’s belongings from the house and loading them into a moving van Tuesday. Family members declined comment. Police said the orphaned children have been taken in by relatives in Southern California.

The incident shocked residents of the family’s middle-income neighborhood in suburban Glendale. Neighbors said the family members seemed like average people who kept to themselves.

“The two little kids were always real happy, very intelligent. And last summer when the daughter had her sweet 16 party, the father came around the neighborhood asking everyone to sign a petition saying it would be OK for them to have the party,” resident Mike Dufresne said.

“Nothing like this has ever happened before around here,” said Norma Watkins, a 27-year resident of the neighborhood. “It’s sort of unreal.”