Man Shoots Ex-Girlfriend, Kills Self in Front of Boy

A man shot his estranged girlfriend to death and then killed himself Tuesday in front of the woman’s 8-year-old son and her aunt, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.

The man and woman were pronounced dead at the scene of the 8:05 a.m. shooting in a carport beneath an apartment complex on East 56th Street, detectives said. Deputies withheld confirmation of the identities of the victims pending notification of next of kin.

The aunt--30-year-old Maria Martinez--said her 25-year-old niece and her niece’s three children had separated from the 26-year-old man six months ago after he had beaten her. Martinez said the man lay in wait in the carport early Tuesday, and when the woman and her son came downstairs, the man confronted them.

“He said, ‘I want to kill you,’ ” Martinez said. “She said, ‘Please don’t. Leave me alone.’ ”

Seconds later, the man fired five shots into the woman’s chest, Martinez said. She said the man then fired two shots that glanced off his head before firing a final shot that fatally wounded him in the chest.

The boy was not injured.