3 are found shot to death inside Whittier house
The bodies of two men and a woman were found inside a Whittier house Friday night after police surrounded the property for more than seven hours and locked down a nearby elementary school.
The deaths apparently arose from a family dispute, but police said they had no more details.
Police first responded to a report about noon that a woman had been shot in the house in the 16000 block of East Janine Drive. With expectations that a gunman was still inside, police did not enter right away and called out the SWAT team.
Lt. Randy Inman of the Whittier Police Department said all three people died of gunshot wounds but that investigators were trying to determine whether one died of a self-inflicted gunshot. No shots were fired at police, he said.
The victims were identified only as a man in his 30s, another man in his 60s and a woman in her 60s.
Officers used tear gas to enter the house and are ventilating the residence so the victims can be identified.
Murphy Ranch Elementary School, located across the street, was locked down as a precaution until the end of the school day. At that time, children were escorted through a door away from the trouble, Inman said.
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