Children among five dead in US shooting

Five people were found dead, three of them children, in what appeared to be a murder-suicide in a home across the street from the Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California, police said today.

A 14-year-old boy called police about 11pm on Saturday to report that his father had shot him and his brother at their condominium, said Sergeant Peter Rodriguez of the police department in Brea, which was investigating the shooting in neighbouring Yorba Linda.

Police found the body of a woman on the doorstep. Inside, they found the bodies of a five-year-old boy and two girls, ages eight and nine. Officers also found the body of a man with a shotgun beneath him.

Police did not immediately know the motive for the shootings or the relationship of the victims.

The teenager who called police was in hospital in stable condition, Rodriguez said.

“It is an extreme shock to this community,” Mr Rodriguez told radio station KNX-AM. “We’re all taking this very hard.”

Names of the victims were not released because relatives had not been notified.

Yorba Linda is a commuter community in Orange County, 40 miles south-east of Los Angeles.